Assistance program
Motor Carrier Safety Assistance High Priority Activities Grants and Cooperative Agreements
$443.8 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Transportation, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants (Discretionary)
- CFDA number
- 20.237
- What it does
- Support, enrich, and augment Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) safety programs through partnerships with States, local governments, Federally recognized Indian tribes, other political jurisdictions, and other persons to carry out high priority activities and projects. The High Priority grant program includes: 1) High Priority (HP) grants to implement, promote, and maintain national programs to improve CMV safety; increase compliance with CMV safety regulations; increase public awareness about CMV safety; provide education on CMV safety and related issues; and demonstrate new safety related technologies; and 2) Information Technology Deployment (ITD) grants to advance technological capability and promote deployment of intelligent transportation system applications (CMV, carrier, and driver) as well as support/maintain CMV information systems and networks.
- Who benefits
- FMCSA may award these grants to the agencies of States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Who applies
- Innovative Technology Deployment (HP-ITD) Eligible Entities The HP-ITD awards are available to States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Individuals and businesses are not eligible to apply for HP-ITD funding. To be eligible for HP-ITD funding, the State applicant shall: i. have a commercial motor vehicle information systems and networks program plan (the Program Plan/Top Level Design (PP/TLD)) approved by the Secretary that describes the various systems and networks at the State level that need to be refined, revised, upgraded, or built to accomplish deployment of commercial motor vehicle information systems and network capabilities; ii. certify that the State’s current Program Plan (PP/TLD) was approved by the Secretary as outlined in FAST Act (Pub. L. No. 114-94); iii. certify to the Secretary that its commercial motor vehicle information systems and network deployment activities, including hardware procurement, software and system development, and infrastructure modifications: a. are consistent with the national intelligent transportation systems and commercial motor vehicle information systems and networks architectures and available standards; and b. promote interoperability and efficiency to the extent practicable. iv. agree to execute interoperability tests developed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to verify that its systems conform with the national intelligent transportation systems architecture, applicable standards, and protocols for commercial motor vehicle information systems and networks; and v. certify that the State agency is the lead agency responsible for the PP/TLD, or if it is not the State agency responsible for the PP/TLD, demonstrate that it has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), or other agreement with the ITD lead agency and confirm that the applicant has coordinated with the ITD lead agency regarding all projects requested in the application to ensure State-wide effectiveness and efficiency and to avoid any duplication of effort or other wastefulness in Federal funding initiatives. Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety – (HP-CMV) Eligible Entities The HP-CMV awards are available to the following entities dependent on the selected priority: i. State government agencies including: District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands ii. local governments (including county, city, township, and special district) iii. Federally recognized Native American tribal governments iv. institutions of higher education v. non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service vi. For-profit organizations and individuals are not eligible recipients Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) lead State agencies may request HP-CMV projects which augment initiatives funded by the MCSAP formula grant program. Such projects must clearly demonstrate that their objectives exceed initiatives approved in their State’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CVSP).
- Authorized by
- • Innovative Technology Deployment (HP-ITD) and Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety (HP-CMV) – The HP-ITD and HP-CMV are programs are governed by 49 U.S.C. §§ 31102(l) and 31104 (as amended by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law Number 117-58 (2021)), the Con…
- Program site
- https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/mission/grants ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments