President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation has purged 3,200 grants left by former President Joe Biden of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and social justice initiatives.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration has approved an additional 180 infrastructure grants totaling over $3.2 billion. The department noted that the 180 infrastructure grants are part of an “unprecedented backlog” of over 3,200 projects that the Biden-Harris administration announced and did not accomplish.
“The Trump Administration inherited a record number of 3,200 unobligated grants that had been announced by the previous administration but never obligated,” the Transportation Department said. “This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments in communities across the country. Under Secretary Duffy’s direction, the Department is working diligently to accelerate the distribution of these long-overdue funds and address core infrastructure projects.”
According to the Transportation Department, 329 grants or approximately 10% of the unfinished grants left behind by Biden and former Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg have been approved since Trump’s inauguration in January.
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“America is building again,” Duffy said. “At the Department of Transportation, that means getting back to basics: Building More, Building Efficiently and Building Quickly. The last administration liked to grab the headlines but didn’t want to do the hard work of building.”
“They also tied road construction up with red tape and leftist social requirements – adding millions in costs and months of delay – all while our outdated infrastructure sat in disrepair,” Duffy added. “This administration has a different vision: drain the swamp and make government work for the American people.”
The Transportation Department announced on Tuesday that the process of accelerating the distribution of the Biden administration’s backlogged funding has required the department to remove “burdensome DEI, Green New Scam, and social justice requirements” that were not mandated by Congress. The Transportation Department explained that the Biden administration’s requirements included the “social cost of carbon accounting, pointless greenhouse gas emission reporting, and discriminatory DEI language.”
According to materials obtained by The Daily Caller, some of the Transportation Department grants involved initiatives that burdened projects with an “equity and inclusion program/plan” or a “racial equity impact analysis.”
