FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 8, 2010

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Delegate William A. Bronrott (D-District 16, Montgomery County) today announced that he is resigning from the Maryland General Assembly to accept a position in the Obama Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Delegate Bronrott will become Deputy Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) effective April 27, 2010.

The mission of the FMCSA is to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. The FMCSA was established as a separate administration within DOT in 2000. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and employs more than 1,000 people in all 50 States and the District of Columbia.

A nationally-recognized transportation safety leader of 30 years, Bronrott will join FMCSA after serving 12 years in the Maryland House of Delegates where he has championed passage of numerous bills to strengthen the state's teen driving, impaired driving, aggressive driving, pedestrian safety, and child passenger safety laws.

Prior to his election to the House of Delegates in 1998, Bronrott served as press secretary and transportation safety advisor to Congressman Michael D. Barnes of Maryland (1979-1987). During that time, he helped launch MADD and the war on drunk driving and rallied the Congress to successfully urge President Reagan to appoint the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving.

Bronrott also was instrumental in the U.S. House passage of bills establishing the National Uniform 21 Minimum Drinking Age Act, a DOT incentive grant program that provides additional federal aid to states adopting model highway safety laws, and the annual National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month and National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week.

Since 1987, Bronrott has directed his own public affairs and communications firm specializing in a wide range of transportation safety and injury prevention issues at the federal, state and local levels, including truck, bus and car safety. Over the past two decades, he has also worked with various highway safety organizations on the congressional reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program known as ISTEA, SAFETEA and SAFETEA-LU.

"Bill Bronrott brings an extraordinary combination of skills and experience from his three decades as a respected highway safety leader, a highly effective public communications practitioner, and as someone dedicated to government service," said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro. "Bill's passionate commitment to transportation safety and his amazing track record of bringing people together to make our roads safer makes him uniquely qualified to help us achieve our safety mission of reducing commercial vehicle crashes and saving lives."

In the House of Delegates, Bronrott serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and the Environment, chairs the Montgomery County Delegation's Land Use and Transportation Committee, and represents the Maryland House on the National Capital Region's Transportation Planning Board.

Bronrott also chairs the House Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, is House vice chair of the General Assembly's Joint Audit Committee, and is a member of the Joint Committee on Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). He is a board member of the American Trauma Society of Maryland and the Charles McC. Mathias National Study Center on Trauma and EMS.

Additionally, he has been a leading advocate for Smart Growth policies that encourage greater transit, bicycle and pedestrian options, environmental programs that require eco-friendly green building and energy efficiency standards, and measures to address the needs of persons with developmental disabilities.

"I am thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to support the President and Transportation Secretary in making safety our nation's number one transportation priority," Bronrott said. "I am eternally grateful to the people of Maryland's 16th legislative district for the highest privilege of serving them for 12 amazing years in pursuit of our shared vision of communities that are sustainable, healthy and safe. We've made enormous progress, and the work carries on."

Bill Bronrot: (202) 270-4415

E-mail: bill4md16@aol.com

Candice Tolliver: (202) 366-2309 or 202-306-4580

E-mail: candice.tolliver@dot.gov