How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Impacts Transportation

How does the congressional reconciliation bill impact transportation? According to Streetsblog USA editor Kea Wilson, five major transportation-related provisions spell bad news for sustainable transportation advocates.

For one, the bill eliminates a modest but important benefit for bike commuters, as well as other clean commuting benefits. “While workers who rely on a mix of transit passes and van-pooling used to be able to deduct $175 for expenses related to each of those modes from their taxes — along with another $175 in parking benefits for those days when the bus just doesn't come — the new bill only allows multimodal commuters to deduct a total of $175 across all means of transportation.”

The bill retains a credit of up to $10,000 for vehicle purchases and eliminates fines for automakers that violate emissions standards. The bill also kills the federal EV tax credit as well as rebates for installing chargers. It also cuts funding for a variety of climate-related projects such as the  Low-Carbon Transportation Materials Program and the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants program.