The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or just DOT) is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966 and began operation on April 1, 1967. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Transportation.

Prior to the Department of Transportation, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation administered the functions now associated with the DOT. In 1965, Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, suggested to President Lyndon Johnson that transportation be elevated to a cabinet-level post, and that the FAA be folded into the DOT.

Divisions

Budget

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will award $742.5 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to 11 transit projects. The awardees include light rail projects. Other projects include both a commuter rail extension and a subway project in New York, New York, and a bus rapid transit system in Springfield, Oregon. The funds subsidize a heavy rail project in northern Virginia, completing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's Metro Silver Line to connect Washington, D.C., and the Washington Dulles International Airport. (DOT had previously agreed to subsidize the Silver Line construction to Reston, Virginia.)

President Barack Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2010 also includes $1.83 billion in funding for major transit projects, of which more than $600 million will go towards 10 new or expanding transit projects. The proposed budget provides additional funding for all of the projects currently receiving Recovery Act funding, except for the bus rapid transit project. It also continues funding for another 18 transit projects that are either currently under construction or soon will be.