Steven G. Bradbury

Steven Gill Bradbury (born September 12, 1958) is an American lawyer and government official who is serving United States deputy secretary of transportation. He served as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation during the first Trump Administration. He previously served as Acting Assistant Attorney General from 2005 to 2007 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General from 2004 to 2009,^: 132 heading the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the U.S. Department of Justice during President George W. Bush's second term. He is the presumptive nominee for Deputy Secretary of Transportation in President-elect Trump's second term.

During his tenure in OLC, he authored a number of significant classified opinions providing legal authorization for waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques", a euphemism for torture. Bradbury was nominated to be the Assistant Attorney General for the OLC but Democratic Senators stalled his nomination, preventing the full Senate from voting on it, and Democratic leaders in the Senate instituted pro forma sessions of the Senate during scheduled recesses to prevent the President from giving him a recess appointment. Bradbury continued to serve as the acting chief of OLC until the end of the Bush Administration on January 20, 2009.

Prior to becoming General Counsel of the Department of Transportation, Bradbury was a partner at the Washington D.C. office of Dechert LLP. In June 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to become General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation. On November 14, 2017, Bradbury was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 50–47 for the position. On September 10, 2019, he was further authorized to perform the functions and duties of the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Transportation as the Acting Deputy Secretary. On December 21, 2020, his official title was changed to remove the "acting" designation, but with him continuing to perform the duties of the position.

On January 7, 2021, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump due to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. As the official performing the functions and duties of the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Transportation, Bradbury became the acting Secretary of Transportation as of January 12, 2021. He remained in office until the change of administration on January 20, 2021.

Since December 2022, Bradbury has been a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he was a contributor to Project 2025.