Funds for Safe Streets and other transportation safety and equity programs are being held up by administrative reviews and conflicts with the Trump administration’s priorities.
Despite a stated commitment to streamlining and efficiency in the Department of Transportation and beyond, “it appears that politicized review requirements may be slowing down grant obligations to awarded projects, especially for those related to safety,” writes Corrigan Salerno in a post on Transportation for America.
As Salerno explains, “Transportation projects must clear multiple stages of political and environmental reviews to reach the construction phase, and it becomes especially complicated when they receive federal assistance in the form of a competitive grant. Under a competitive grant award, the awardee and the federal government need to work together to define their work with USDOT before coming to a grant agreement and having their awarded funding obligated to them.”
Now, some projects that were previously awarded grants are having their funding clawed back, and reviews are leading to a distribution rate 1/10 that of the Biden administration. Although Secretary Duffy has touted a quick grant “approval” process, that approval does not equal “awarded and obligated” funding.
Transportation for America analyzed funding obligations under several federal grant programs: the Safe Streets and Roads for All grants, RAISE/BUILD program, SMART grants, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot, and the Neighborhood Access and Equity program. While the Biden administration obligated $141.7 million per month, the Trump administration is obligating $46.6 million per month. “The Trump administration is obligating funds for the competitive grant programs below at 33 percent the speed of the Biden administration.”
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