Sean Duffy defends pause on transportation grants

Washington Post

02-04-2025

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy on Wednesday faced bipartisan pressure to move quickly on infrastructure spending and reduce bureaucratic red tape that delays projects and makes them more expensive. But members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who questioned Duffy were divided on some of the causes — Republicans focused on environmental rules while Democrats asked why projects already approved by the previous administration are now being reviewed for mentions of climate change, environmental justice, or equity and diversity.
'We are looking for … the green and the social justice,' Duffy acknowledged. He promised to follow Congress's mandate to fund environmental initiatives such as electric vehicle charging but told lawmakers that when grant programs don't explicitly include climate or equity goals, 'I'm following your will, which is pulling out the green and the social justice.' But, he said, it would be 'impossible' to move more quickly on 3,200 grants awarded by the Biden administration but not fully under contract.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) countered that it would cost more time and money to 'examine each' grant 'to see if there are any MAGA heresies and hobgoblins in them.'
In an internal memo last month obtained by The Washington Post, Duffy's office said it would review programs and projects that involved green infrastructure, bicycle infrastructure, electric vehicles, reducing greenhouse gases or improving conditions for communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and flag them 'for potential removal.'
Duffy argued that such requirements make projects more expensive and complicated in the long run. But he said President Donald Trump also wants to see infrastructure built. 'It's not just you putting pressure on me. It's the president who is going to say, 'Why aren't you getting more money out the door?'' Duffy said.
Yonah Freemark, a transportation researcher at the Urban Institute, said he was not aware of any previous efforts by a new administration seeking to systematically pull back already-awarded transportation funding. 'This seems to be an attempt to implement the Trump administration's priorities, but retroactively,' Freemark said. 'That's what makes it so troubling.'
Beth Osborne of the progressive nonprofit Transportation for America said Duffy is right that the Biden administration left too many projects unfinalized, with months or years between a grant being awarded and an agreement for how to use the funds approved.
'If he had come in and said, 'We're actually going to make government work and more efficient,' he would be on very firm footing,' she said. 'But that's not what he did. What he did was say, 'I notice that a bunch of these awards have been held up through inefficiency, so now I'm going to dig into them and decide if they should exist at all.''
Katrina Dodro, the mayor of New Carrollton, Maryland, said her city won a $250,000 grant for bike and pedestrian connections to nearby transit options. The small city is close to Amtrak, Metro and Maryland commuter rail but lacks good ways to reach them without a car. Dodro was getting ready to sign an engineering contract when she learned the award had been frozen. 'It's been kind of devastating,' she said. 'It would have helped us with crosswalks, with bike paths, with lighting. I've been extremely excited for that.'
Duffy's office announced last week that the 'Safe Streets for All' grant program funding the New Carrollton project will not favor projects that involve cutting lane capacity for vehicles. Known as 'road diets,' shrinking or removing traffic lanes is considered by the Transportation Department a proven way of reducing crashes. Ken McLeod of the League of American Bicyclists said that he is nonetheless 'optimistic' that the program language still emphasizes safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
'Communities should … emphasize how infrastructure that improves bicyclist safety is part of improving the safety of all road users,' he said, adding that road diets can be put in place without creating congestion for cars.
The transportation secretary struck a more conciliatory posture on the Hill than he has online and in other public appearances, saying 'infrastructure is bipartisan' and 'one of the unique spaces in our government where we all work together.' Duffy recently called the New York City subway 'a s---hole' and used a similar expletive to describe California's high-speed rail project. On Wednesday, he called both public transit and bicycling 'an important part' of reducing traffic and said he wanted to 'show America what high-speed rail looks like.' He said he would soon share a proposal for upgrading outdated air traffic control systems.
'Most of these projects are really good projects, I haven't found many that I disagree with,' he told lawmakers. He found common ground with Democrats on reforming the environmental review process and learning from other countries how to build faster and more cheaply — ideas Kamala Harris pushed in her campaign.
'Everything you are saying … I am like, 'Yes, yes, yes,'' Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) told Duffy. He added: 'Everything you just expressed' — about projects that go overbudget and past deadlines — 'that is exactly how people feel.'
But Duffy demurred when asked about dedicating funding for the D.C. Metro, which has trouble getting loans and launching major projects because its budget lacks a dedicated funding source. Instead he focused on safety on transit, saying Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) was 'making good efforts in D.C.' but that more needed to be done. Crime on the D.C. Metro is down to pre-pandemic levels, as General Manager Randy Clarke emphasized in a recent letter to Duffy.