The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently issued guidance regarding the directive for all modal agencies to review all competitive grant programs and awards, including a project-by-project review. These reviews include programs run by the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Railroad Administration.

Guidance on What Policies Apply

The reviews are to identify project scope and activities that allocate funding to advance priorities counter to the Trump Administration’s executive orders, including climate, energy, diversity, and equity projects.

Policies that apply to the review are outlined in Executive Order 14148, Executive Order 14154, Executive Order 14151, Executive Order 14168, secretarial Order 2100.7, and the Secretarial Memorandum on Implementation of Executive Orders Addressing Energy, Climate Change, Diversity, and Gender.

This guidance applies to competitive award selections made after January 20, 2021, without grant agreements or partially obligated grant agreements. Projects with executed grant agreements that are fully obligated are outside the scope of the provided guidance.

Identifying Components Against Current Presidential Policy

Modal agencies are to identify programs that may include any elements such as equity activities, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion activities, climate change activities, environmental justice activities, and gender-specific activities. Programs with the primary purpose of bicycle infrastructure, electric vehicles (EV), and electric vehicle charging infrastructure must also be identified.

Projects with any of the above elements will be subject to a project-by-project review if they meet specific criteria. Project-by-project reviews will examine and flag any project scope elements or activities for potential removal, such as:

• Project activities such as equity analysis, green infrastructure, bicycle infrastructure, EV and/or EV charging infrastructure.

• Project purpose or primary project benefits that include equity and/or climate such as projects that purposefully improve the condition for EJ communities or actively reduce GHG emissions.

Steps to Take After Elements Have Been Identified

Agencies must recommend to the Office of the Secretary which project sections should continue in their current form, be revised with a reduced or modified scope, or be canceled entirely based on their review.

Agencies will negotiate with the project sponsor to update the project scope to eliminate and replace identified project elements that align with the program statute, scope of the project sponsor’s application, and Trump Administration executive orders if a project is revised.

If the project sponsor does not agree to remove project elements, the DOT has directed agencies to proceed with a reduced award, removing the flagged scope and activities.

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