‘Back to Basics’: DOT Focuses on Critical Infrastructure to Move Commerce & People Safely
Moving away from the previous administration’s agenda, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently discarded two memos from the Biden administration whose priority was to serve a “social justice and environmental agenda.”
The memos’ objectives, issued under Secretary Pete Buttigieg, were listed as “reconnecting communities and reflecting the inclusion of disadvantaged and under-represented groups in the planning, project selection, and design process” and “accommodating new and emerging technologies like electric vehicle charging stations,” according to DOT.
“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,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
According to Fox News, The memos centered on how to best use the billions in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 across the country. Neither memo is currently available on the Federal Highway Administration website.
However, this is not the first time the memos have faced scrutiny.
The United States Chamber of Commerce in Jan. 2023 asked the Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt to get rid of the “Policy on Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resources to Build a Better America” memo in order to avoid over-complicating the overall mission of taxpayer-funded infrastructure investments.
“We supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) because it represents the most significant infusion of investment in our infrastructure since the enactment of the Interstate Highway System in the mid-1950s,” the chamber wrote with various other groups, including the American Trucking Associations and the Association of American Railroads.