Infra Insight Blog

Sean Duffy was sworn in as the 20th Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) on January 29, 2025, and immediately issued directives that will impact the operations of the Department and its Operating Administrations (OA), as well as state and local grant recipients.

Implementation of Executive Orders Addressing Energy, Climate Change, Diversity and Gender

The first of these directives is a memorandum entitled “Implementation of Executive Orders Addressing Energy, Climate Change, Diversity, and Gender,” which outlines the initial steps that U.S. DOT and its OAs will take to implement a number of the Executive Orders (EO) issued by President Trump on January 20, 2025, including the following:

• Executive Order 14148, “Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions”;
• Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”;
• Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy”; and
• Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Pursuant to this memorandum, Secretary Duffy directs all OAs, along with the Office of the Secretary Transportation (OST), to rescind all U.S. DOT orders, directives, rules, regulations, notices, guidance, funding agreements, programs, and policy statements that reference or relate in any way to climate change; greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; racial equity; gender identity; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals; environmental justice (EJ); or the Justice 40 Initiative.

In addition, the memorandum rescinds the following U.S. DOT orders:

• DOT 1000.17, “Department of Transportation Equity Council” (December 19, 2022), establishing the U.S. DOT’s Equity Council, which served as a coordination mechanism for all OAs and offices within the OST to ensure consistency and direction of the implementation of activities regarding equity and to further institutionalize equity across the U.S. DOT.
• DOT 4360, “Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Policy for DOT Operational Assets” (September 18, 2023), which was intended to ensure that U.S. DOT and its OAs integrate climate change resilience requirements into agency planning, supply chain sustainability, and mission critical assts for internal operations.
• DOT 5610.2C, “U.S. Department of Transportation Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations” (May 16, 2021), which updated U.S. DOT’s procedures to ensure that no population is forced to bear a disproportionate burden of the negative human health and environmental impacts resulting from transportation decisions, programs, and polices.

Ensuring Reliance Upon Sound Economic Analysis in Department of Transportation Policies, Programs, and Activities

The second of these directives is Secretary Duffy’s Order entitled “Ensuring Reliance Upon Sound Economic Analysis in Department of Transportation Policies, Programs, and Activities,” also executed on January 29, 2025 (the “Order”).  This Order broadly states its intention to reset the principles underpinning U.S. DOT’s policies, programs, and activities to mandate “rigorous economic analysis and positive cost-benefit calculations,” ensuring that all U.S. DOT assistance bolsters the economy and benefits the American people.  In doing so, the order references separate direction to the Environmental Protection Agency to address the “harmful and detrimental inadequacies” in the calculation of the social cost of carbon, and directs U.S. DOT, in the interim, to ensure that estimates to assess the value of changes in GHG emissions resulting from agency actions are consistent with the guidance contained in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-4, “Regulatory Analysis” (September 17, 2003).  (If you, kind reader, will permit me a rabbit hole: President Trump’s Executive Order 14145, “Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” rescinds the prior Administration’s Executive Order 14094, which required OMB to issue revisions to the 2003 version of OMB Circular A-4.  OMB issued a revised Circular A-4 on November 13, 2023.  It appears that the Trump Administration’s position is that the recission of Executive Order 14094 also rescinds the November 13, 2023, revised version of OMB Circular A-4.)

In addition, this Order directs U.S. DOT to administer its policies and programs to avoid adverse impacts on, and maximize benefits for, families and communities.  The Order enumerates adverse impacts to families and communities as including, but not limited to, noise, water pollution, soil contamination, denial of or reduction in transportation services, increased difficulty in raising children in a safe and stable environment, and destruction or disruption of community cohesion, safety, or economic vitality.  The Order identifies benefits to families and communities as including, but not limited to, economic opportunities, healthcare facilities, recreational activities, commercial activity, or any actions or project components that will help alleviate poverty, enhance safety, and primarily benefit families and communities by improving the quality of their lives, raising their standard of living, or enabling them to participate more fully in the economy.

The Order also directs that U.S. DOT-assisted programs and activities not be used to further local political objectives or for projects and goals that are purely local in nature and unrelated to a proper federal interest.  Instead, the Order directs U.S. DOT to prioritize projects and goals that are consistent with the role of the federal government in the United States’ system of federalism, have strong co-funding requirements, adhere faithfully to all federal statutory Buy America requirements, and do not depend on future U.S. DOT support for improvements or ongoing maintenance.

Finally, the Order directs U.S. DOT to prioritize projects and goals that highlight the following Administration policies:

• Use of user-pay models;
• Direct funding to local opportunity zones;
• Mitigate impacts of U.S. DOT programs on families, including accessibility of transportation to families with young children;
• Offer preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average;
• Prohibit imposition of vaccine and mask mandates;
• Require local compliance with federal immigration enforcement; and
• Require compliance with other goals and objectives specified by President Trump or Secretary Duffy.

Notably, the Order specifically calls out the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program in reference to the Administration’s policies related to mitigating impacts of U.S. DOT programs on families and giving preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.

The Order directs the OAs to implement guidance, revise all Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), and review and unilaterally amend the terms and conditions of grant agreements as necessary to effectuate the Order.

Greenhouse Gas Measurement Rule

In the third and final of these directives issued on January 29, 2025, Secretary Duffy approved issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to rescind the prior Administration’s Final Rule entitled “National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Performance of the National Highway System, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Measure,” (88 Fed. Reg. 85364 (December 7, 2023)).  It should be noted that legal challenges to the Final Rule had already been filed in the United States District Courts for the Northern District of Texas and the Western District of Kentucky.  Pursuant to State of Texas, et al., v. United States Department of Transportation, et al., United States District Judge Wesley Hendrix vacated the rule in March 2024.  A similar challenge (Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al., v. Federal Highway Administration, et al.) resulted in United States District Judy Benjamin Beaton declaring “that the Final Rule exceed the Federal Highway Administration’s statutory authority and is arbitrary and capricious” (primarily because the Northern District of Texas had already vacated the rule) in April 2024.

So, as a Federal Transportation Grant Recipient, What Does This Mean for Me?

Secretary Duffy has primarily directed the U.S. DOT’s OAs to take appropriate actions to comply with President Trump’s EOs.  As the OST and OAs complete reviews of their respective programs and policies, grant recipients should be on the lookout for direction from their applicable OA in the form of NPRMs, revisions or amendments to current NOFOs, and recission or revision of current, or implementation of new guidance and policy documents.  In addition, OAs may opt to unilaterally amend executed grant agreements to comply with the Administration’s policies.  The actions will likely be issued by the relevant OST office or OA, and Nossaman will also track these developments closely.