49 U.S.C. § 105
Section 105 · National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Southern Pacific Transportation Co. v. Commercial Metals Co. (1982)
Most recently applied in Intellistop Inc. v. DOT (July 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an administration in the Department of Transportation.
(b) The head of the Administration is the Administrator who is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Administration has a Deputy Administrator who is appointed by the Secretary of Transportation, with the approval of the President.
(c) The Administrator shall carry out—
(1) duties and powers vested in the Secretary by chapter 4 of title 23, except those related to highway design, construction and maintenance, traffic control devices, identification and surveillance of accident locations, and highway-related aspects of pedestrian safety; and
(2) additional duties and powers prescribed by the Secretary.
(d) The Secretary may carry out chapter 301 of this title through the Administrator.
(e) The Administrator shall consult with the Federal Highway Administrator on all matters related to the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of highways.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In subsection (a), the words “The . . . is an administration in the” are substituted for “There is hereby established within the”, in section 201(a) (1st sentence) of the Highway Safety Act of 1966 (Pub. L. 89–564, 80 Stat. 731) to conform to other sections of the revised title. The words “(hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘Administration’)” are omitted as unnecessary.
In subsection (c), the words “carry out . . . duties and powers . . . prescribed by the Secretary” are substituted for “perform such duties as are delegated to him by the Secretary” to eliminate surplus words and for consistency. The list of excepted programs in clause (1) is substituted for “highway safety programs, research and development not specifically referred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection”, in section 201(b)(2) of the Highway Safety Act of 1966 for clarity.
In subsection (d), the words “Administration . . . authorized by this section” are omitted as surplus.
The text of section 201(d) of the Highway Safety Act of 1966 is omitted as executed.
Amendments
1994—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 103–272 substituted “chapter 301 of this title” for “the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.)”.