On Monday, March 3^rd, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a notification of enforcement discretion in the Federal Registry, announcing their pause in enforcement of the whistleblower provisions in the Vehicle Safety Act. This decision comes in response to a Presidential Memorandum issued on January 20^th that required federal agencies to pause the enforcement of recently published rules for 60 days, allowing appointed officials to review new regulations for legality and alignment with Presidential policy priorities. The Memorandum applies to any rules that had not gone into effect by the time of its issuance. As the NHTSA rules governing the Auto Safety Whistleblower Program went into effect on January 16^th, they fell outside of the purview of the Memo. Despite this, the NHTSA has voluntarily halted enforcement until March 20^th, 2025, potentially freezing all auto safety whistleblower award payments in the interim.

The NHTSA’s decision to pause enforcement of the Auto Safety Whistleblower Program closely follows the long-awaited publication of final rules for the program. The Auto Safety Whistleblower Program was codified into law by the passage of the FAST Act in 2016. The FAST Act required that the NHTSA publish final rules to detail the administration of the program within sixteen months. However, the NHTSA faced untenable delays in creating the rules and published them in December of 2024, nearly a decade after the passage of the...

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