In response to an inquiry by Whistleblower Network News, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) declined to comment on the reasons behind the years-long delay in publishing Congressionally-mandated regulations implementing an auto-safety whistleblower award program.
On April 14, 2023, the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published proposed rules implementing the whistleblower provisions of Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act (MVSWA). These proposed rules were published nearly seven years past a deadline set by Congress for final rules to be published.
Passed in January 2015 as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), the MVSWA mandated that the DOT approve and publish regulations implementing its whistleblower program on or before July 6, 2016.
Over the years whistleblower advocates and members of Congress have repeatedly called out the DOT on its delay in publishing rules and asked for explanation. The DOT has consistently failed to provide reasoning for the delay.
For example, in March 2021, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Edward Markey (D-MA) sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg demanding that the DOT immediately implement the whistleblower program. The letter also posed the question of “Why did NHTSA miss the statutory deadline for the rulemaking?”
Following the letter, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a spokeswoman for NHTSA declined to comment on why the agency hasn’t yet...
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