Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030

Chairwoman's Message ~ This plan is more than a roadmap: It is a commitment to the public we serve, the families and communities affected by transportation tragedies, and the dedicated professionals across our agency who work every day to improve safety. ... Our mission is clear: to make transportation safer. We accomplish this by ensuring the lessons learned from our investigations translate into meaningful, lifesaving action. ... Strategic Goals for 2026-2030: Impact, Efficiency, and Resilience. (1) We will amplify our Impact by strengthening the reach and effectiveness of our safety products and recommendations. (2) We will pursue Efficiency to keep pace with increasing demands on our agency. (3) We will deepen our Resilience so that the agency remains ready to respond to transportation disasters and emerging safety challenges. As we pursue the ambitious goals outlined in the pages that follow, we will continue to lead with the highest degree of independence, transparency, technical excellence, and integrity that the NTSB is known for worldwide. - Jennifer Homendy, Chairwoman About the NTSB ~ The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant events in the other modes of transportation -- railroad, transit, highway, marine, pipeline, and commercial space. It determines probable causes, issues safety recommendations, conducts transportation safety research studies, and offers assistance to family members and survivors. It also serves as the appellate authority for enforcement actions involving aviation and mariner certificates issued by the FAA and US Coast Guard, and adjudicates appeals of civil penalty actions taken by the FAA. Mission Means ~ The NTSB carries out its mission by: (a) maintaining its congressionally mandated independence; (b) conducting objective, thorough, and timely investigations and safety studies; (c) deciding, fairly and objectively, appeals of enforcement actions by the FAA and US Coast Guard and certificate denials by the FAA; (d) advocating for implementation of its safety recommendations; and (e) assisting victims and survivors of transportation disasters and their families. The NTSB Board ~ The NTSB has five Board Members, each nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve five-year terms. The President designates a Board Member as Chairman and another as Vice Chairman for three-year terms. The Chairman requires separate Senate confirmation. Budget Authority ~ For FY 2026, the enacted appropriation under 49 U.S.C. 1118 is $145,000,000. Personnel costs account for approximately 72 percent of the budget. The NTSB is aligning budgetary costs with its strategic goals and objectives. Setting the Course for the Next Five Years ~ The NTSB held two senior executive offsite meetings and three staff focus groups to develop the plan, and consulted Congress, transportation safety stakeholders, other federal agencies, and the public through the Federal Register; the feedback received was general in nature and led to only minor updates. Key strategic efforts aligned with the President's Management Agenda and OMB Circular A-11, Part 6 include: aligning planning, performance, and workforce priorities; engaging external stakeholders; expanding use of data and analytics; strengthening performance measures, including addressing the August 2023 GAO audit, NTSB: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Management and Operations (GAO-23-105853); and applying enterprise risk management and program evaluation. GAO Content Requirements (Appendix A) ~ The NTSB reports that the FY 2026-2030 plan now meets GAO's content requirements for outcome-oriented strategic goals and objectives, description of congressional consultation, and relating performance goals to strategic goals (all partially met or not met in the FY 2022-2026 plan), and mostly meets the requirement to describe strategies and resources, with resource requirements addressed in annual performance plans and reports. Goals and objectives are assessed during quarterly strategic reviews; the agency has developed an NTSB evaluation framework and conducts targeted program reviews as resources permit. Notes ~ Some Annual Performance Goal (APG) wording differs between Table 1 and the goal sections of the plan; this rendition uses the goal-section wording, including the APG titles. In Table 1, APG 1.1 refers to "automated processes" and APG 3.2 reads "develop and train the workforce on key initiatives that enable mission success"; Objective 2.2 is titled "Transform business processes" in Table 1 and "Transform Business Processes for Impact" in the goal section. In Appendix A, the FY 2022-2026 rating for program evaluations is shown with the "not met" symbol but labeled "Met." The plan does not include a vision statement or state its release date. Submitter's Note: As per the requirement set forth in section 10 of the GPRA Modernization Act, this StratML rendition was compiled from the source by Claude.ai and can be edited in the form at https://stratml.us/forms/Claude/Part1.html. Source: https://www.ntsb.gov/about/reports/Documents/FY26-30%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf