NHTSA's Office of Regional Operations and Program Delivery (ROPD) administers over $500 million in grant programs annually to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Territories and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under Section 405, NHTSA awards grants for occupant protection, State traffic safety information systems, impaired driving countermeasures, distracted driving, motorcyclist safety, State graduated driver licensing laws, and non-motorized safety. Also included is a revised racial profiling grant program (Section 1906). Regional offices help States use data to identify their highway safety problems, evaluate safety programs and activities, and provide technical assistance and training to State program managers.

On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or “FAST Act.” It was the first law enacted in over 10 years that provided long-term funding certainty for surface transportation, meaning States and local governments can move forward with critical transportation projects, like new highways and transit lines, with the confidence that they will have a Federal partner over the long term. The FAST Act authorized $2.7 billion in funding for the Section 402 Highway Safety Programs and Section 405 National Priority Safety Programs for fiscal years 2016 through 2020.

MAP-21 provides $1.3 billion for highway safety grant programs. It was enacted on July 6, 2012, and restructured existing grant programs administered by NHTSA. MAP-21 specifies a single application deadline for all highway safety grants and requires that all states have a performance-based highway safety program.