On March 10, 2025, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy rescinded sure memos issued by the Biden Administration which added tips to federal infrastructure venture spending. These tips included particular issues for so-called “social justice” points, environmental issues, and equity-first design.
It was one other step within the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the infrastructure legacy of the Biden period. Love him or hate him, President Biden handed historic laws to rebuild America’s infrastructure and manufacturing energy via the IIJA and the IRA.
The press launch despatched from the Transportation Secretary’s workplace stated that these insurance policies had, “no foundation in statute,” and in that description alone it might be technically right, nonetheless, it falls flat in its total intent.
Make no mistake, earlier than the Biden memo’s have been issued, infrastructure spending was political. The place a highway will get constructed has all the time been primarily based in a political ideology. Through the nice enlargement of the nationwide interstate system post-World Warfare Two, many tens of hundreds of individuals have been displaced from their properties within the title of progress, however the demographic make up of the displaced alerts clearly what political ideology was on the wheel.
Within the many years since, an amazing quantity of analysis has confirmed that the choices made throughout that point brought on irreparable hurt, not solely to the communities that have been razed to make room for highways, however to the very financial material of these cities. As we entered the brand new century, progress on this space was starting to be made. The errors of the previous have been beginning to be undone.
Through the crafting of the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), there was initially $20 billion earmarked for initiatives set to revive a few of these communities nationwide, strengthening cities as soon as extra. When the invoice finally handed, it was knocked all the way down to solely $1 billion, however nonetheless it was progress.
The very fact of the matter is that this: reverting to the established order is a political alternative. It is a political alternative that claims we would like to not be taught from the previous, however to proceed on, blind to our predecessors errors, and be certain that one other technology should undergo the implications.
See you on the highway.
