The Trump administration has pushed back on the media narrative that it is “delaying” the huge backlog of grants awarded under the Biden administration, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) pointing out that they are going through the former president’s “unprecedented” number of leftovers to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements before sending them out.
Industry news website Streetsblog USA, accused DOT Sec. Sean Duffy of delaying DOT projects, saying he told Congress that “he’s not delaying DOT projects — as he delays DOT projects.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said DOT’s review of the staggering 3,200 grants that former President Joe Biden awarded but did not obligate — an amount the agency told Breitbart News had never before been shoved on them by a previous administration — has caused “significant disruption” to infrastructure efforts, Construction Dive reported.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) argued that it would cost more time and money to examine each grant “to see if there are any MAGA heresies and hobgoblins in them,” the Washington Post reported.
Despite the finger-pointing, Duffy announced Tuesday that his department has recently cleared 529 infrastructure grants, bringing the current total he has approved to 1,065 — worth roughly $10 billion — since the Trump administration took over in January.
The latest round of approvals is worth nearly $3 billion, the department noted.
While grants have to be obligated within four years so the various infrastructure projects can actually receive the money, Biden and former DOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg had let some sit untouched since 2021, putting a rush on Duffy when he took on the role.
In approving the latest batch of grants, Duffy delivered $21 million for rail safety improvements just north of Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced in June 2022; nearly $12 million for the Manatee County Port Authority in Florida, announced in September 2022; $110 million for a North Carolina bridge to the Outer Banks, announced in January 2023; and $47 million for the Port of Baltimore, announced in December 2023.
But before he cleared the multi-million-dollar deals, his office told Breitbart News that DOT “ripped out burdensome DEI, Green New Scam, and social justice requirements that Congress deliberately did not mandate.”
“This includes social cost of carbon accounting, pointless greenhouse gas emission reporting, and discriminatory DEI language,” an official explained to Breitbart News, pointing out that road construction costs had skyrocketed by about 70 percent under the Biden administration with such DEI and environmental justice programs in place.
“The greenhouse gas reporting burden alone increased project costs and added months to the permitting process,” the official added.
A Biden-era rubric asked DOT officials if a “racial equity impact analysis ha[d] been completed” for each project, and if the grant recipient had “adopted an equity and inclusion program/plan or has otherwise instituted equity-focused policies.”
According to Duffy, all of that language and those sorts of requirements have been cut out.
DOT provided Breitbart News with a breakdown of some of the grants included in the recent round of approvals:
Federal Aviation Administration:
- Airport Improvement Program Supplemental- 23 projects ($124 million)
- Airport Terminal Program- 10 projects ($33 million)
Federal Highway Administration:
- Bridge Investment Program- 1 project ($1.5 million)
- Congestion Relief Program- 1 project ($16 million)
- National Scenic Byways Program- 1 projects ($113,000)
- Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects- 2 projects ($39 million)
- Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-saving Transportation Program (PROTECT) 32 projects ($369 million)
Federal Railroad Administration:
- Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI)- 8 projects ($69 million)
- Federal-State Partnership- 3 projects ($83 million)
- Railroad Crossing Elimination- 22 projects ($28 million)
- Safety Infrastructure Improvement Program- 1 project ($2 million)
Federal Transit Administration:
- All Stations Accessibility Program- 10 projects ($365 million)
- Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive- 41 projects ($175 million)
- Ferry Service for Rural Communities- 4 projects ($195 million)
- Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility (ICAM)- 14 projects ($5 million)
- Low or No Emission (Bus) Grants- 26 projects ($187 million)
- Passenger Ferry- 13 projects ($69 million)
- Rail Vehicle Replacement- 3 projects ($372 million)
- Tribal Transit Competitive Program- 43 projects ($16 million)
Maritime Administration:
- Port Infrastructure Development Program – 2 projects ($56 million)
- United States Marine Highway Program – 2 projects ($6 million)
Office of the Secretary of Transportation:
- Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant Program – 2 projects ($45 million)
- Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) Grant Program – 8 projects ($499 million)
- National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) – 1 project ($110 million)
- Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program – 1 project ($6 million)
- Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) – 255 projects ($69 million)
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Duffy said, “While cynics in the press hysterically warned of doomsday delays, USDOT has been hard at work to get America building again. We’ve done this by refocusing the department on core infrastructure – not enacting a radical political agenda.”
“With a third of the last administration’s unprecedented backlog cleared, we will continue to rip out red tape roadblocks to get dirt moving,” the secretary added.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
