Traffic Safety Commission reviews Triennial Highway Safety Plan and warns of 30% federal funding cut

The Washington State Traffic Safety Commission on July 16, 2026 heard staff present the agency’s Triennial Highway Safety Plan, submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on July 1, and was warned that an anticipated cut in federal supplemental funding will shrink grants for 2027 by roughly 30 percent.

Shelley Baldwin, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, told commissioners that federal funding to the commission fell from about $18,000,000 in 2026 to an anticipated $12,500,000 in 2027, a roughly $5.3 million reduction tied to the lapse of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act supplemental funding. "We are facing a 30% reduction," Baldwin said, and the agency has used provisional state funding for some priorities but has not replaced the lost federal funds.

Why it matters: the plan sets the commission’s priorities and spending for federal fiscal years 2027–2029 and directs grant awards and program work across state and local partners. Staff repeatedly told the commission the funding change will shrink many program budgets and leave some regional Target Zero manager positions vacant in 2027.

Wade, the program lead who presented the Triennial Highway Safety Plan, outlined program-level highlights and budgets that would be affected. Among the figures presented: the communications program’s 2027 budget is about $3,272,500; the community traffic services portfolio is a little over $4.6 million; the impaired-driving portfolio is the largest at about $4.5 million; research and data is budgeted at $741,000; and traffic-records improvements are budgeted at about $1.89 million. Tribal traffic-safety work will be supported by about $160,000 in federal funds paired with $1,000,000 per biennium in state funding for tribal grants.

Staff also reviewed problem areas the plan targets. Wade said alcohol remained the most commonly found impairing substance in fatal crashes and noted trends in polysubstance impairment, pedestrian fatalities that remain above pre-pandemic levels, and telematics indications that phone use and speeding remain widespread. "Alcohol is still the substance we see most often in impaired driving cases," Wade said, and his presentation included programmatic responses spanning communications, enforcement, data, and court- and post-arrest interventions.

The director highlighted several recent analyses the commission relied on. Baldwin summarized a Washington State Institute for Public Policy study the legislature requested that modeled possible policy interventions: "If we were to lower our BAC from 0.08 to 0.05," she said, "for every dollar we'd invest doing that, we could expect a $330 return," a finding staff described as an unusually high return on investment for a policy change.

Staff also reported on automated enforcement and telematics work. The agency’s automated-safety-enforcement survey found 29 cities operating red-light or speed-camera programs and 416 cameras statewide. Telematics demonstration projects and driver-behavior analyses showed roughly 25 percent of trips in the study period involved phone use and 32 percent involved sustained speeding of 10 mph or more above posted limits in some months; staff said those data are informing enforcement and local deployment decisions.

The presentation included a pilot on ignition interlocks in Yakima that has surfaced compliance barriers: the pilot found only about 40 percent of people ordered to install interlocks had actually done so, often because those drivers lacked a valid license needed to obtain an interlock permit. Baldwin said the pilot has prompted interagency work with the Department of Licensing and the State Patrol to smooth relicensing and installation pathways.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about backfilling funds and program detail. Nigel Herbig (Association of Washington Cities) asked whether state-level backfill efforts had been pursued; Baldwin said the legislature provided some proviso funding targeted to priorities such as DUI enforcement and tribal grants but that it did not fully replace the federal loss. Judge George Steele and other speakers described systemic challenges that affect deterrence and adjudication, including toxicology delays and recent court-rule changes affecting pretrial detention.

Because the meeting did not have enough commissioners present to meet quorum requirements, staff announced the commission would not take the planned vote on the submitted Triennial Highway Safety Plan and instead would carry the item to the commission’s Oct. 15, 2026 meeting. "So we're not gonna have a quorum today," Baldwin said; the chair confirmed the plan will return to the commission in October.

Next steps: staff said the plan as submitted may be amended if the commission proposes significant changes before finalizing grant allocations. The presentation and supporting program plans will form the basis for staff to prepare the annual grant application due Aug. 1, 2026, and agency staff said they will share fuller budget and project-level details with commissioners and stakeholders ahead of the October meeting.