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

  • The art of road safety
    June 10, 2022
    Saving lives on the road surely can’t be as easy as painting the town red – and pink, green and yellow? Or purple and blue? Can it? Adam Hill has a brush with Bloomberg Philanthropies
  • US government announces eighth round of TIGER funding
    February 24, 2016
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that US$500 million will be made available for transportation projects across the country under an eighth round of the highly successful Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program. The 2016 TIGER discretionary grants will fund capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and will be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropoli
  • Editor’s comment: 2021 is year of opportunity
    December 10, 2020
    We’ve all got used to an online world this year. For many of us, Zoom was just a cartoon synonym for ‘quick’ at the start of the year; now look...
  • ITS America welcomes new Secretary of Transportation
    April 30, 2013
    Scott F Belcher, president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), has welcomed the nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to serve as the next US Secretary of Transportation. “As Mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx knows the importance of keeping people and our economy moving in a growing and dynamic part of the country. His leadership, work ethic and fresh perspective will be needed to find bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our nation’s transportation system.