March 29, 2021 

Equity and Access Policy Statement 

The U.S. Department of Transportation is committed to advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, 

environmental justice, and equal opportunity. The simple yet powerful mandate of equity and access in 

transportation will shape and drive all departmental programs and activities. 

In accordance with Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved 

Communities through the Federal Government,” the Department proactively will ensure 

nondiscrimination in all of its federally conducted programs, activities, and services. This means that, 

among other things, the Department is committed to promoting equitable delivery of government benefits 

and opportunities, including advancing meaningful engagement with all communities and ensuring that 

government contracting and procurement opportunities are available on an equal basis to all eligible 

providers of goods and services. The Department will also work with recipients of Federal funding to 

enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and its implementing regulations, to ensure that no 

person shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied 

the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in any program, activity, or service provided by or 

funded by the Department. 

The Department is committed to ensuring full and equitable access to programs, activities, and services 

for persons with limited English proficiency (LEP). This applies to the Department’s activities, as well as 

the Department’s federally conducted programs, activities, and services in accordance with Executive 

Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.” Providing 

appropriate language assistance requires identifying critical points of interaction with the LEP public, 

assessing LEP communities’ particular language assistance needs, and determining, with specificity, how 

each of the Department’s Operating Administrations (OA) will ensure meaningful access for LEP 

persons. The Department recognizes that many of these tasks are best addressed by the OAs, which often 

have more direct contact with persons and communities requiring language assistance. Accordingly, each 

OA is responsible for issuing and implementing a language access policy consistent with departmental 

language access policy and must emphasize the importance of providing appropriate language-based 

access to its programs and activities. 

It is also the Department’s ongoing commitment to make achieving environmental justice (EJ) part of our 

mission by developing programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionately high and 

adverse human health, environmental, climate-related, and other cumulative impacts on disadvantaged 

communities. It is the Department’s policy, as reflected in the Department’s EJ Strategy, to incorporate 

EJ and equity principles into all transportation planning and decision-making processes and project 

development and to promote these goals through public outreach efforts conducted by the Department and 

its funding recipients. 

In addition to our statutory obligations, equity—as a matter of principle—is essential in all our dealings 

with the American public. The Department simply cannot fulfill its mission without recognizing equity 

as a driving force, and I am committed to ensuring that all communities have meaningful access to our 

Department’s programs and activities. 

Pete Buttigieg