President Trump names Steven Bradbury as deputy secretary for USDOT
President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Steven Bradbury as the next U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation. Bradbury served in the first Trump administration in a variety of roles, including acting deputy secretary of transportation, acting secretary of transportation and his senate-confirmed position as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).
“For the entirety of my first term, Steven served as the general counsel of the Department of Transportation, where he helped rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and cut regulations that were killing jobs and our incredible small businesses. Steven will work with our fantastic Secretary of Transportation Nominee, Sean Duffy, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
During his time as general counsel for USDOT from November 2017 through January 2021, Bradbury was responsible for the department’s rulemaking and enforcement actions.
He has also served as the principal deputy and acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) during George W. Bush’s first term as president. In his role as head of the OLC, he advised the president on constitutional and statutory questions. He also received the Edmund J. Randolph Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
“The honor of a lifetime. I’m deeply grateful to President Trump for the gift of his trust, and I look forward to rejoining the dedicated and professional staff of [US]DOT in support of Secretary Sean Duffy,” Bradbury wrote in a LinkedIn post. “At the same time, I’m immensely thankful for the constant support and friendship of my wonderful colleagues at Heritage [Foundation], including, among so many others, Dr. Kevin Roberts, Derrick Morgan and Diana Furchtgott-Roth. I love them all!”
Bradbury’s background is in practicing law, having been a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. His practices focused on antitrust matters, appellate cases, regulatory enforcement and investigations and rulemaking and judicial review of agency actions. He has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, along with Judge James Buckley in Washington, D.C.’s circuit court. He graduated magna cum laude from Michigan Law School and received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University.
Most recently, Bradbury was a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which authored Project 2025. As a fellow, Bradbury has provided commentary on a variety of topics related to sustainability, particularly arguing against the Biden-Harris administration’s push for electric vehicles
As reported by Smart Cities Dive, “In 2017, the Senate voted 50-47 to confirm Bradbury as general counsel at the DOT, with 45 Democrats and two Republicans opposed. The Senate does not yet have a nomination hearing for Bradbury on its calendar.”
Megan Perrero | Editor in Chief
Megan Perrero is a national award-winning B2B journalist and lover of all things transit. Currently, she is the Editor in Chief of Mass Transit magazine, where she develops and leads a multi-channel editorial strategy while reporting on the North American public transit industry.
Prior to her position with Mass Transit, Perrero was the senior communications and external relations specialist for the Shared-Use Mobility Center, where she was responsible for helping develop internal/external communications, plan the National Shared Mobility Summit and manage brand strategy and marketing campaigns.
Perrero serves as the board secretary for Latinos In Transit and is a member of the American Public Transportation Association Marketing and Communications Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism with a concentration in magazine writing and a minor in public relations from Columbia College Chicago.
