When Congress created the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in 1967, it unified the nation’s surface, air, and maritime programs to deliver the Interstate Highway System—one of the most successful public-private partnerships in American history. It connected markets, strengthened national defense, and gave families and businesses the freedom to move and prosper. After 9/11, USDOT evolved again, modernizing aviation and restoring public trust in travel.¹

Today, America faces another turning point. The affordability crisis—rising housing and transportation costs, aging infrastructure, and widening inequality—demands an equally bold response. Programs that shape where people live, work, and build—across HUD, Commerce, and USDOT—operate in separate systems with different calendars, cost-share formulas, and environmental reviews. Local governments spend millions navigating redundant grant processes while projects arrive years late and billions over budget. HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds often rebuild roads and bridges after storms—proof that fragmentation pays to repair what coordination could have prevented.²

The time has come to modernize. America needs a Department of Infrastructure, Mobility, and Economic Development—a unified project-delivery department that brings together housing, transportation, and economic development under one mission: to build affordable, connected, and resilient communities where every American has the freedom to move and the opportunity to prosper.

For decades, Congress has urged better coordination between housing, transportation, and economic development, but the system has never worked as intended. Transit once lived under HUD before moving to USDOT in the 1970s, yet the connection between land use, mobility, and economic growth remains broken.³ HUD’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Community Development Block Grants, CDBG-DR, and Public Housing Capital Fund operate separately from Commerce’s Economic Development Administration programs—Public Works, Build to Scale, and Tech Hubs. Together, these programs represent more than $200 billion in annual investment, yet they rarely align.⁴ A new industrial park may rise miles from workforce housing; a transit station may open without nearby jobs; a highway expansion may undermine a downtown revival.

A modernized department would change that by creating a unified planning and project-delivery process within the Office of the Secretary. HUD’s Consolidated Plan, EDA’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, and USDOT’s metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes would merge into a single Place Investment Plan (PIP). Each region would submit one certified plan aligning housing, transportation, and job-access goals—ending redundant cycles and ensuring every federal dollar advances shared objectives such as affordability, safety, access, and lower emissions.⁵

To deliver on those plans, the new department would establish a Project Delivery Agency consolidating HUD, EDA, and USDOT’s regional and field offices into one network. This integration would streamline permitting, procurement, and environmental review under one federal timetable while maintaining environmental and civil-rights safeguards. Its charge would be clear: build more homes in the right places, expand reliable mobility options, and spark economic growth across rural, suburban, and urban America.

Consolidating HUD’s 10 regional offices, EDA’s six regional centers, and USDOT’s 52 field and division offices—including 11 Federal Highway regional offices, 10 Federal Transit regions, and nine Federal Aviation regions—would align more than 20,000 federal staff under one operational mission: getting projects built faster and more efficiently.⁶ Together, these offices form the government’s on-the-ground delivery network, yet they now operate independently with different reporting systems and standards. Integrated within the new Project Delivery Agency, these teams could give states, local governments, community organizations, and the private sector a whole-of-country view—linking federal investment, permitting, and technical assistance from Washington through state DOTs, MPOs, and local partners.

USDOT’s existing modes would also evolve to support this integrated mission. A new Surface Mobility Administration would merge highways, rail, transit, and freight under one performance framework emphasizing safety, access, emissions, and affordability. An Air and Space Administration would oversee aviation, drones, and advanced air mobility while aligning aerospace innovation with workforce and housing strategies. A Safety, Operations, and Resilience Administration would ensure that everything built remains safe, maintained, and climate-ready—coordinating national efforts to operate and safeguard infrastructure against natural and human-made disasters. Additionally, a new Digital Infrastructure and Technology Office would treat broadband, artificial intelligence, and data as core infrastructure, merging USDOT, HUD and Commerce research and technological capabilities to improve logistics, cyber security land-use modeling, and performance tracking.⁷

Congress should pair this reorganization with a new National Mobility, Housing, and Infrastructure Fund—a single pool that unifies capital and credit programs across the department. The fund would combine USDOT’s formula and discretionary programs with HUD’s and EDA’s infrastructure investments, plus financing tools such as TIFIA, RRIF, and the Capital Magnet Fund. Modeled after Canada’s Infrastructure Bank and Germany’s KfW, it would leverage public and private capital to finance projects that reduce household and business costs while improving access to opportunity.⁸ The fund would cover capital, operations, maintenance, and disaster recovery, allowing state and local partners flexibility to pursue the most cost-effective strategies. A zoning reform or main-street housing project could qualify alongside a transit expansion if both achieve the same outcome: lowering housing and transportation costs and expanding access to opportunity.

With these reforms, the new department would bring more than $250 billion in annual federal investment under one roof—creating a single system where planning, delivery, and financing align.⁹ For families, this means affordable homes closer to jobs, schools, and services. For businesses, it means reliable logistics and workforce access. For rural and tribal communities, it means revitalized main streets and digital connections to national and global markets. And for taxpayers, it means faster projects, lower costs, and a government that finally works as one.

USDOT was created to connect America through the Interstate Highway System. After 9/11, it modernized to secure the skies. Today, America’s challenge is affordability—ensuring every household can move freely and prosper wherever they live. By integrating HUD, Commerce, and USDOT into one modern delivery department, Congress can build the next great system of American opportunity: affordable, connected, and resilient communities powered by partnership, innovation, and trust.

The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Eno Center for Transportation. 

1. 1. U.S. Department of Transportation, A Brief History of the Department of Transportation, DOT.gov, 2023.

1. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, CDBG–Disaster Recovery Overview, 2024.
2. Federal Transit Administration, Transit History and Origins within HUD, FTA.gov, 2023.
3. Congressional Research Service, Community Development Block Grants: Overview and Funding History (R43394), 2024; EDA Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance Programs (R46386), 2023.
4. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Planning Requirements for MPOs and States, 2024.
5. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication in Federal Programs (GAO-23-105607), 2023.
6. U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA Research and Technology Innovation Overview, 2023; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Strategic Plan, 2024.
7. Canada Infrastructure Bank, Annual Report 2023–24; KfW Development Bank, Promotional Financing for Infrastructure, 2023.
8. Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the U.S. Government FY2024, 2024.