The agency will no longer enforce Title VI, eliminating disparate impact protections for federally protected groups.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced it will no longer enforce Title VI, a key civil rights regulation that "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funding." The law prohibits policies from having disproportionate impacts on protected groups.
According to an article by Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman for KQED, "Civil rights advocates have successfully used Title VI to file civil rights complaints in the Bay Area, including against BART, when the agency built an extension in neighborhoods where a majority of residents were people of color."
The rule change means that DOT will stop requiring agencies to consider equity in policies related to fares, service frequency and location, or weigh the disparate impacts of transportation projects. The move complies with a Trump executive order from April 2025 announcing the administration's intention to eliminate disparate impact protections across government agencies.
Read the full story: Trump Transit Secretary Rescinds Key Civil Rights Law Once Used to Challenge BART Project
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