Historic Documents

Creating the Department of Transportation

Below, interested readers will find a trove of documents that tell the Department's origin story. From the 1965 letter written by Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the then-independent Federal Aviation Agency proposing a new Cabinet Agency to a legislative chronology of the bill that created DOT, we think transportation fans will appreciate the story these documents tell.

• Comments on the Memorandum for and against the creation of a Department of Transportation
• Letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson from White House Advisor Joe Califano Jr. 
• Creation of a 12th Cabinet Post
• Department of Commerce response to proposal for Department of Transportation
• Halaby Letter Proposing Creation of the Department of Transportation
• Legislative Chronology of the Department of Transportation Bill
• Origins of the Department of Transportation
• History of the Department of Transportation Act

Check out more historical documents from the LBJ Library on the creation of the DOT at the Eno Center for Transportation.  Eno is not affiliated with the DOT.