Skip to main content

USDoT goes 'back to basics' by rescinding Biden-era memos

Transport funding memos were part of 'radical social and environmental agenda'
By Adam Hill March 11, 2025 Read time: 1 min
USDoT is 'building critical infrastructure projects that move people and move commerce safely' © Brett Critchley | Dreamstime.com)

The US Department of Transportation has further signalled the Trump administration's desire to break with the past by rescinding transport funding memos issued during President Joe Biden's time in the White House.

USDoT now says that the two separate memorandums, both called 'Policy on Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resources to Build a Better America', "injected a social justice and environmental agenda into decisions for critical infrastructure projects" and were "in conflict with Congressional intent and the Administrative Procedure Act".

"These Biden-era memos displaced the long-standing authorities granted to states by law, added meritless and costly burdens related to greenhouse gas emissions and equity initiatives," USDoT's statement continues.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Transportation is getting back to basics — building critical infrastructure projects that move people and move commerce safely," says transportation secretary Sean P. Duffy. "The previous administration flouted Congress in an attempt to push a radical social and environmental agenda on the American people. This was an act of federal overreach. It stops now.”

The decision "affirms that these Biden-era policies have no basis in statute and have no role in DoT programmes going forward".  

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITS America launches 3-year strategic plan
    January 11, 2023
    Message of inclusion reflects CEO Laura Chace's call to action at ITS World Congress 2022
  • Tolling agencies build resilience into highway operations
    August 6, 2013
    IBTTA executive director and CEO Patrick D. Jones looks at tolling’s resilience in an increasingly unpredictable and cash-strapped world. Turbulent times call for transportation agencies to move smarter. That’s why resilience and preparedness have become watchwords in every aspect of tollway operations. From having the financial resources to invest in construction, maintenance and roadway operations, to having up-to-date emergency plans and social media strategies to cope with severe weather, tolling agenci
  • Toll option for new Cape Fear bridge
    June 6, 2025
    North Carolina councillors voted to leave option open for proposed structure
  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r