Home > About DOT > Biographies of Key Officials > Phyllis F. Scheinberg

Last updated 10/17/2007

Phyllis F. Scheinberg was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate on April 29, 2005, to be the Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs/Chief Financial Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). In this capacity, she directs the development and presentation of the Department’s budget, coordinates DOT’s programs to achieve the goals of the President’s Management Agenda, and oversees all DOT financial systems and programs. Ms. Scheinberg served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs at DOT from 2001 to 2005.

Prior to joining DOT, Ms. Scheinberg was Director for Transportation Issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), where she directed GAO’s reports, testimonies, and briefings evaluating surface transportation issues including highway, mass transit, railroad, the status of Amtrak’s financial viability, and the reauthorization of Federal surface transportation programs.

Before joining GAO’s Transportation Issue Area in 1990, Ms. Scheinberg was a senior budget examiner for transportation and natural resources at the Office Management and Budget from 1981 to 1990. She began her Federal career as a Presidential Management Intern.

During her Federal service, Ms. Scheinberg has served as a member of numerous councils and committees, including the Transportation Research Board’s Steering Committee on Innovation Finance. In 1997, she was named to a blue-ribbon panel established by the Congress to examine passenger rail travel in the United States.

Ms. Scheinberg was awarded the Secretary of Transportation’s 9/11 medal in 2002, was conferred the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in 2003, and received the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis’ James A Blum Award for Exceptional and Distinguished Accomplishment and Leadership in Public Budgeting in 2006. During 2007, she was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

She received a B.A. degree in mathematics from Simmons College in Boston, and is a member of the Simmons Leadership Council. Ms. Scheinberg also earned a M.S. in Administration from the University of California at Irvine.