directly to the Administrator. Those offices are: Office of Research, Development and Technology (RD&T) RITA's Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T) office's mission is to coordinate research across all modes of transportation and to promote advanced innovative transportation solutions. RD&T coordinates a research planning council, a planning team, and several research clusters that are dedicated to certain multimodal research subjects. The planning council ensures cross modal collaboration and coordination in research being done with DOT and its partners, and advises the Secretary of Transportation on research issues. The planning team supports the council by reviewing and coordinating departmental research plans and budgets, assessing research, and promoting best practices in research performance and technology transfer. University Transportation Centers (UTC) The University Transportation Centers Program funds transportation research at 136 colleges and universities and helps advance the education and training needed to support a 21st Century transportation system. Research and education programs provided by UTCs address critical national transportation challenges while developing the next generation of transportation professionals. UTC colleges and universities trained 32,000 practicing transportation professionals in 2009. Climate Change Center The virtual DOT Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting, an online, interactive knowledge base on transportation and climate change, includes information on greenhouse gas emissions, the potential impacts of climate change on the infrastructure, approaches for integrating climate change considerations into transportation decision making, and ideas for adaptation and mitigation. Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Technologies Program This program develops and validates remote sensing technologies for application to transportation infrastructure in the three major areas listed below. Congress authorized approximately $7 million a year for this work. Cost and time reduction for corridor planning and collecting information for environmental assessment, Freight congestion management at ports, border crossings and gateways, and in urban areas, and Paved and unpaved roads and bridge systems management and condition assessment. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Established as a policy-neutral statistical agency in 1992, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) provides comprehensive data about America's transportation networks. The data reveals how people, goods, and vehicles move through the system, as well as measure the impact of social, economic, and environmental factors on system performance. BTS is the source of much of the nation's data on the operations and finances of commercial airlines. BTS also conducts the Commodity Flow Survey, the only nationwide intermodal freight data source. As a federal statistical agency, BTS releases data based on