FY 27 DC DMV Budget Oversight Hearing before the Committee on Transportation and the Environment

Government of the District of Columbia
Department of Motor Vehicles

Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Oversight Hearing

Testimony of Gabriel Robinson
Director, Department of Motor Vehicles

Before the Committee on Transportation and the Environment
Council Member Charles Allen, Chairperson
Council of the District of Columbia

John A. Wilson Building
April 22, 2026

Good afternoon, Chairperson Allen, members of the Committee, and Committee staff. I am Gabriel Robinson, Director of the DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DC DMV). On behalf of Mayor Muriel Bowser, I would like to thank our customers, Chairperson Allen, this Committee, and the rest of the Council for their support. I also want to congratulate the Mayor and her Administration for their extraordinary leadership and continued efforts to revitalize the District. I want to extend a special thank you to all my colleagues at DC DMV for their exceptional dedication and hard work. Team DMV continues to provide outstanding customer service to District residents. As I often say, we are truly saving lives every day.

Mayor Bowser's proposed FY27 Budget, Grow DC, was formulated with three key considerations in mind: how to drive growth in our economy to fund the services and programs residents count on, how to keep families in DC and attract new residents, and how to create a business environment that draws new investment and creates new jobs. We are navigating a pivotal moment that demands a more deliberate approach to growth. The federal dollars that once expanded our programs in unprecedented ways have been exhausted, and federal workforce reductions have introduced new pressures on our economy and commercial corridors. That being said, it's important to be clear: DC is still growing. Revenues have slowed, but the city maintains a strong financial foundation on which we can build by making the kinds of strategic and targeted decisions that will allow DC to continue growing while delivering the high-quality services our residents depend on.

The Mayor's FY27 proposed budget supports DMV's mission to promote the safe operation of motor vehicles and public safety while providing outstanding customer service. Annually, DC DMV serves approximately 650,000 licensed drivers and identification card holders in the District, and 270,000 registered vehicle owners. Each year, we collect ticket payments for more than 4 million tickets. We interact with District residents and non-residents, with an average of 3,200 daily customer contacts-more than almost any other District government agency. In Fiscal Year 2026 to date, we have met the needs of more than 180,000 customers across our four service center locations. The agency has also processed and mailed products generated from more than 207,000 transactions.

Additionally, we have conducted over 361,000 in-person, online and mail hearings, and over 11,000 virtual hearings. In Fiscal Year 2025, we inspected more than 136,000 vehicles including approximately 17,500 inspections conducted at our self-service OBD emissions kiosk at the Takoma Recreation Center and more than 2,000 at Fort Stanton.

Let me now briefly describe DMV's proposed budget and projects for the coming fiscal year:

DMV's FY27 proposed operating budget is $70,781,225, which represents a 4% decrease from the FY26 approved operating budget of $73,756,978. The proposed budget is comprised of $62,386,932 in Local funds and $8,394,293 in Special Purpose Revenue (SPR) funds. DMV's FY27 Capital Budget of $8,685,000 is allocated to continued modernization efforts underway for our licensing, and registration system known as DESTINY, the ticketing processing system known as eTIMS and an investment in the development of digital licenses and identification cards (also known as an mDL/ID).

The FY27 budget proposed by the Mayor invests or impacts the following DMV programs:

• An increase to the Local funds budget of $757,000 across divisions to align salaries and Fringe Benefits with projected costs.
• An additional $5.39M in Capital funding for the Destiny Modernization Project, which has a release date of September 7, 2027.
• Continued investment of $1.68M in Capital funding for the limited modernization of the ticket processing and adjudication system, also known as eTIMS.
• A new investment of $1.6M to incorporate digital credentialing into our existing system for driver license and ID production and issuance. The end result will allow District residents to obtain digital identification to upload to their smartphones. Digital identification, also referred to as Mobile Drivers Licenses (mDLs), Digital Credentials, Mobile IDs, will be an additional product available to customers and our standard, tangible, physical IDs will remain in production.

I would also like to take a few moments to highlight some of the agency's strategic goals and accomplishments over the past year and discuss plans for the year to come:

• DC DMV increased transparency and communication by making it a priority to keep District residents informed of tickets they receive with the establishment of a Ticket Alert Service (TAS) public awareness campaign. We promoted the benefits of TAS, such as providing real-time updates conveniently sent to a user's email or text message. With this innovative service District residents are able to receive alerts when a new ticket is issued to their registered vehicle tags, before late penalties are applied to a ticket, and before a vehicle becomes boot eligible, in addition to receiving alerts for scheduled hearings or decision outcomes, among other helpful notifications. By the end of May 2025 enrollment into the program had increased by more than 10%.
• The DC DMV had a 99.9% Real ID compliance rate across all active driver licenses and identification at the start of the Federal Department of Homeland Security enforcement date on May 7, 2025. This compliance rate is one of the highest in the nation.
• DMV worked closely with OCTO for the much-needed IT infrastructure and telecommunication upgrades for DMV's headquarters located at 95 M Street SW, which serves as the nucleus for all DMV IT functions. The upgrades include refreshing servers, switches, fiber optic cabling and comprehensive foundational enhancements to ensure the continuity of all of DMV's operations across all locations.
• In FY2026, DMV continues to produce marketing materials to support the Ignition Interlock Device (IID) Program. The IID Program outreach campaign is part of the DC government's coordinated approach to traffic safety and education and emphasize how DC DMV is committed to preventing impaired driving incidents in the District. DC DMV's IID Program outreach campaign was launched in September 2025 with the deployment of outdoor ads across the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, (WMATA) Metro Bus and Rail cars.
• DMV's Final Rulemaking for the Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) Program was approved on April 15th and will be published on May 1st in the DC Register. ISA is a device installed in vehicles that will actively engage to ensure compliance with local speed limits in alignment with the STEER Act. The rules identify the requirements for enrollment, potential violations and provider qualifications. DMV hopes to have the first participants enrolled in the coming weeks.
• In July 2025, DMV fully implemented the no tickets for stolen vehicles and plates provisions of the STEER Act. Working with our ticketing processing vendor, MPD, DDOT and DPW, we have programmed the ticket processing system to automatically dismiss tickets to stolen vehicles and tags once we are notified by MPD.
• In a continued effort to increase convenience for our customers, DMV has also expanded the available languages for the knowledge test to include nine new options as of December 2025. In addition to the 15 languages currently available, District residents may now take the Knowledge Test in Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish, Danish, Indonesian, Dutch, Farsi, Italian and Swedish.
• On February 1, 2026, DC DMV began offering customers an online disability placard renewal transaction making it easier for customers to be serviced, many of whom are disabled or elderly.
• By June 2026, we plan to develop a process to allow customers to opt into paperless notifications, thus reducing waste and decreasing our environmental footprint.
• By September 2026, DC DMV will add videos to our mobile app to show customers how to complete specific transactions, reducing customer error and frustration.
• We will also develop and implement the vehicle point system, implement a tag manual or resource guide (all tags/ all jurisdictions), and implement the driver safety curriculum by September 30, 2027, in connection with the implementation of the Destiny modernization project.

In closing, the resources allocated to DMV will play a critical role in helping the agency to continue to provide outstanding service to District residents and all DMV customers. The Council and this Committee are critical allies in this effort, and we appreciate your collaboration to ensure we operate efficiently and effectively. We look forward to working together to "Grow DC" this next fiscal year, and beyond. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.