Steven Bradbury

Steven Bradbury served as General Counsel of the Department of Transportation (DOT) under President Trump from November 2017 to January 2021, where he oversaw all DOT rulemaking and enforcement actions. Under his leadership, DOT led the Trump administration’s agencies on deregulation, cutting 23 regulations for every new regulation it issued. Bradbury, widely known for his role authorizing CIA torture practices, is considered an expert in regulatory policy and its dismantling. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and is a contributor to the DOT chapter of Project 2025, which proposes an extreme deregulatory agenda and the elimination of federal transit funding.

In June 2017, Bradbury was nominated to serve as General Counsel of DOT. His nomination was widely opposed by human rights groups and a bipartisan group of senators due to his role authorizing torture under the Bush administration. In November 2017, Bradbury was ultimately confirmed by the Senate in a slim partisan vote. He remained in his post through January 2021 and ended the last 8 days of the administration serving as Acting Secretary after Secretary Elaine Chao resigned following the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Bradbury’s tenure, marked by significant deregulation and a weakening of federal oversight, had significant safety and environmental implications. An illustrative set of dangerous actions under Bradbury’s leadership include:

-Revoking a requirement that state and regional authorities track tailpipe emissions from vehicles on federal highways.

-Changing safety rules to allow for rail transport of highly flammable liquefied natural gas.

-Reversing an Obama-era rule that required braking system upgrades for “high hazard” trains hauling flammable liquids like oil and ethanol.

-Freezing civil penalties for companies that violate fuel efficiency standards.

-Attempting to cut the Highway Trust Fund in the President’s 2018 budget proposal.

-Withdrawing, and then delaying, a proposed rule that would inform car owners about fuel-efficient replacement tires.

In Bradbury’s Project 2025 chapter on the DOT, he calls for a variety of controversial initiatives including cutting the Highway Trust Fund, a key source of public transportation funding, abolishing DOT’s discretionary grant-making processes, repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and stopping the United States’s focus on electric vehicle manufacturing and adoption.

Bradbury is best known for his role in authorizing the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” during his tenure at the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) under the George W. Bush administration. Specifically Bradbury authored the “torture memos” which provided legal justification for the use of harsh interrogation techniques by the CIA. One of these memos authorized “the use of 13 different techniques to use against high value detainees, which included dietary manipulation, facial slap or insult slap, cramped confinement, water dousing and waterboarding”. These memos have been heavily criticized for endorsing practices that many consider to be torture and violations of the Geneva Convention.

In 2007, Bradbury was nominated to be the Assistant Attorney General but did not get confirmed due to his authoring of the “torture memos.”

Bradbury has also written many controversial opinion pieces for the Heritage Foundation including “How to Fix the FBI”. This article argues that the FBI has become overly politicized and that its national security operations threaten American liberties, and criticizes federal agencies for allegedly supporting censorship and suppressing free speech and religious liberty. Bradbury calls for prohibitions against federal involvement in censoring domestic disinformation and suggests disbanding entities like the Disinformation Governance Board.

Bradbury has also clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.