Safety Grant Consistency Act
The Safety Grant Consistency Act would cap changes to federal highway safety grant programs by barring the Secretary of Transportation from creating new performance measures or regulatory/program requirements for these grants unless they were already in effect before the bill’s enactment. It also requires the Secretary to ease or remove any grant-related requirements that are not explicitly authorized or required by existing law. The bill covers highway safety grant programs under sections 402 and 405 of title 23 United States Code, effectively reducing potential new oversight rules or reporting demands on states and localities that receive these grants. In short, the bill aims to limit federal-imposed conditions on highway safety grants and to roll back or simplify requirements that aren’t directly mandated by Congress, shifting to maintain the status quo and reduce regulatory/administrative burdens for grant recipients.
Key Points
- 1Prohibits the Secretary of Transportation from establishing new performance measures or regulatory/program requirements for highway safety grant programs (sections 402 and 405, title 23, U.S.C.) that were not in effect before enactment.
- 2Requires the Secretary to ease or eliminate any grant-related requirements that are not explicitly authorized or required by an Act of Congress.
- 3Defines the scope of the required action to highway safety grant programs under sections 402 and 405 of title 23, U.S.C., and clarifies that the Secretary’s authority is overridden by this act to the extent it would create new measures or requirements.
- 4Uses a “notwithstanding any other provision of law” clause to ensure these prohibitions and fixes take precedence over other statutes or regulations.
- 5The bill is titled the “Safety Grant Consistency Act,” and is currently introduced in the Senate (S. 2788, 119th Congress) by Senator Sheehy, seeking to limit changes to federal highway safety grant policy.