Podesta Group

Challenge: A leading motor vehicle safety association called on the Podesta Group to help them seek federal funding for a variety of industry-wide initiatives.

Strategy: Make sure the organization’s funding priorities were front and center in the transportation authorization debate. This was done by targeting key authorizers and appropriators, and leveraging a public safety message that some of these projects were crucial tools used by states to keep unsafe drivers off the road and fellow motorists out of harm’s way.

Result: Thanks to the Podesta Group’s savvy strategy and appropriations smarts, $6 million was secured to make it possible for states to crack down on driver’s license fraud by sharing digital images and verifying the identity of people applying for licenses. Following that success, an additional $28 million was secured in the transportation reauthorization bill to modernize an information system that deters unsafe commercial drivers.