On March 10, 2025, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy rescinded sure memos issued by the Biden Administration which added pointers to federal infrastructure mission spending. These pointers 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 power by means of 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 could be technically right, nonetheless, it falls flat in its general intent.
Make no mistake, earlier than the Biden memo’s had been issued, infrastructure spending was political. The place a highway will get constructed has at all times been based mostly in a political ideology. Throughout the nice growth of the nationwide interstate system post-World Struggle Two, many tens of 1000’s of individuals had been displaced from their properties within the title of progress, however the demographic make up of the displaced indicators clearly what political ideology was on the wheel.
Within the a long time since, an amazing quantity of analysis has confirmed that the choices made throughout that point prompted irreparable hurt, not solely to the communities that had been razed to make room for highways, however to the very financial cloth of these cities. As we entered the brand new century, progress on this space was starting to be made. The errors of the previous had been beginning to be undone.
Throughout the crafting of the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), there was initially $20 billion earmarked for tasks set to revive a few of these communities nationwide, strengthening cities as soon as extra. When the invoice finally handed, it was knocked right down to solely $1 billion, however nonetheless it was progress.
The actual 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 study from the previous, however to proceed on, unaware of our predecessors errors, and make sure that one other technology should undergo the results.
See you on the highway.
