Assistance program
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Discretionary Safety Grants and Cooperative Agreements
$459.6 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Transportation, Department of
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements;Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 20.614
- What it does
- Provide technical and financial assistance to State and local government agencies, for-profit and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, hospitals, and other persons (as defined in Title 1 USC Chapter (1)) in support of highway safety research and development, special studies, educational and public awareness projects related to or involving: 1). Activities, including demonstration projects to study vehicle, highway, driver, passenger, motorcyclist, bicyclist, and pedestrian characteristics; 2). Emergency medical services communications and transportation of the injured; 3). Human behavioral factors such as driver education, impaired driving, and distracted driving; 4). Evaluation of the effectiveness of countermeasures to increase highway and traffic safety, including occupant protection and alcohol- and drug-impaired driving technologies and initiatives; 5). Development of technologies to detect drug impaired drivers; 6). Research, evaluation, and identification of best practices related to driver education programs (including driver education curricula, instructor training and certification, program administration, and delivery mechanisms) and recommendations for harmonizing driver education and multistage graduated licensing systems; 7). Effect of State laws on any aspects, activities, or programs described above.
- Who benefits
- Intrastate, State, Local, Sponsored Organization, Public Nonprofit Institution/Organization, Other Public Institution/organization, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government, U.S. territory or possession, Specialized Group, Small Business, Profit Organization, Private nonprofit institution/organization, Quasi-public nonprofit institution/organization, Other private institution/organization, Native American Organization, Anyone/General Public, Health Professional, Scientist/Researcher, Consumer, Minority Group, Handicapped, Youth, Senior Citizen,
- Who applies
- Eligibility requirements will be specified on a project-by-project basis. Generally speaking, and historically, projects have been made available to the following types of organizations: Intrastate, Local, Sponsored Organization, Public nonprofit institution/organization, Other public institution/organization, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government, U.S. territory or possession, Specialized Group, Small Business, Profit Organization, Private nonprofit institution/organization, Quasi-public nonprofit institution/organization, Other private institution/organization, Native American Organization,
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