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

  • A global standard for enforcement systems – is it necessary?
    May 30, 2013
    Jason Barnes speaks to leading figures from the automated enforcement sector about whether a truly international standard for automated enforcement systems is necessary or can ever be achieved. Recent reports of further press controversy in the US over automated enforcement (see ‘Focusing on accuracy?’, ITS International raise again the issue of standards and what constitutes ‘good enough’ in terms of system accuracy and overall solution effectiveness. Comparatively, automated enforcement has always expe
  • ITS solutions to keep truck traffic moving
    June 8, 2015
    David Crawford reviews freight management initiatives. Managing truck traffic to minimise its environmental impacts, without adversely impacting on its critical economic role, continues to drive ITS-based solutions in both urban and interurban contexts.
  • UK smart motorways scrapped due to 'lack of public confidence'
    April 17, 2023
    'Pause' on roll-out has been made permanent - with £1bn cost also cited as a factor
  • Hurdles to MaaS adoption highlighted
    January 25, 2018
    Jack Opiola talks to some MaaS advocates in the US. Cities will accommodate almost 60% of the world’s population by 2025 and technology is outpacing transportation plans and planners - putting extreme pressures upon planners and transportation systems alike. Big data, digital payments, ubiquitous communications, smartphone applications, on-demand travel and autonomous vehicles are all shredding existing transport plans. Never before has the pace of population growth and the tools to address this problem