The New York Times | Purging ‘Equity’ Programs, G.O.P. Defunded Its Own Roads
By: Catie Edmondson
When Republicans repealed a Biden-era “access and equity” grant program for transportation, they canceled funding for projects in some of their own districts.
When the Biden administration created a grant program three years ago to fund transportation projects explicitly dedicated to promoting “neighborhood access and equity,” officials in St. George, Utah, saw an opportunity.
They had long sought funding to build two underpasses to bridge the interstate highway dividing the city in half, creating chronic traffic jams around a pair of schools. So when the president of the United States prioritized equity in transportation projects, city officials submitted a grant for a project that the administration later highlighted as crucial to breaking “a vehicle dependency that is often disproportionately borne by marginalized communities.”
The Biden administration awarded them $87 million.
Then came Republican control of Washington, and President Trump’s initiative to root out “radical and wasteful government D.E.I. programs.” Republicans in Congress pushed through a sprawling domestic policy bill that rescinded all money awarded through the Biden-era transportation program that had not yet been spent — $3.2 billion in total, including all the funding awarded to St. George.
Representative Sam Graves of Missouri, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, hailed the rollback as “cutting wasteful Green New Deal spending.”
All told, funding was yanked back for 55 projects, 19 of which had been set to be built in Republican congressional districts, according to federal data obtained by The New York Times. They included rebuilding highways, new underpasses and overpasses, and pedestrian and bike trails. The biggest included in G.O.P.-held districts included $147 million to design and build a 30-mile trail in Jacksonville, Fla., represented by Representative Aaron Bean; and $74.9 million to rebuild a highway in Missoula, Mont., represented by Representative Ryan Zinke; and the project in St. George, represented by Representative Celeste Maloy.
The little-noticed cancellations were yet another instance in recent months of Republican members of Congress aligning themselves with Mr. Trump’s ideological agenda in ways that may work to the detriment of their own constituents. Republicans in Congress also voted last month to allow the president to cancel funding for public broadcasting, including for stations that can be vital lifelines of communication in rural communities, many of them represented by the G.O.P.
The transportation funding whiplash also reflects how, regardless of partisan or ideological bent, state and local officials often contort themselves to suit the whims and priorities of the president when federal money is on the table, and can be buffeted by changing political winds in the process.
After the legislation was enacted, some local officials announced they would scale back the scope of the projects they had planned.
“This is an example of how Montana’s transportation needs exceed available funding,” Bob Vosen, an administrator at the state’s Transportation Department, said in a statement.
Donna Deegan, the Democratic mayor of Jacksonville, said last month on a local radio show that she was being encouraged to reapply for federal funding through a different grant program “and perhaps get some of that money back.”
“I don’t know that we would ever get $147 million again,” she said. “I hope so.”
Stefanie Seskin, the director of policy and practice at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, said in an interview that the rollback had “thrown everyone into a bit of a tailspin.”
She cited the example of a $335 million project in the Allston area of Boston that would realign the Mass Pike, allowing for the construction of a new neighborhood and train station.
“Without this money, the neighbors are kind of wondering, ‘What’s going to happen?’” Ms. Seskin said. “And that’s the same story that’s playing out in Denver, in Atlanta, Chicago and elsewhere, where these big capital grants are being taken back.”
Eager to find savings for their marquee legislation extending and expanding the tax cuts they passed in 2017, Republicans targeted a number of programs enacted as part of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2022 climate law. That included repealing tax breaks for clean energy projects, and an array of funds for programs aimed at reducing diesel emissions, protecting endangered species and promoting low-carbon transportation materials.
The effort came in tandem with an executive order Mr. Trump issued on his first day in office, calling for the termination of “equity related” grants or contracts.
“The Biden administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity and inclusion,’ into virtually all aspects of the federal government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” the order read.
Some of the targeted projects leaned into the program’s stated goal of fostering “equitable development and restoration” and reconnecting communities by “removing, retrofitting or mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity.”
A bicycle and pedestrian bridge in Vermont, for example, was pitched as featuring “gentle curves and cues to foster respectful passing while supporting active transportation.”
Others were more circumspect in their description of how their project fit the program’s aims. The Transportation Department under Mr. Biden described a project in Michigan awarded funds to study the removal of at-grade highway railroad crossings as improving “the quality of life for residents who have been harmed by historic practices.” It was not clear what those practices were.
As the domestic policy bill moved through Congress, Democrats on the House Transportation Committee were particularly upset that Republicans had targeted the grants, pointing out that the money had benefited both G.O.P. and Democratic districts.
“I’m unsure if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle intended to rescind funds that help reduce road fatalities and make our streets safer, or if the word ‘equity’ is so triggering because you think inclusion is a bad word,” Representative Marilyn Strickland, Democrat of Washington and a member of the transportation panel, said at a committee hearing on the legislation in April.
“But the outcome is the same,” she continued. “Our localities will have fewer opportunities and face higher costs to pursue projects that create good-paying jobs, strengthen our local economies and improve regional and local transportation efficiency, community mobility and safety in our districts.”