DOT will cut funds to transportation projects with DEI: Duffy

Dive Transient:

• In an April 24 letter, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned DOT funding recipients towards partaking in variety, fairness and inclusion practices, which he stated violate federal regulation. Duffy additionally informed grantees that they have to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and different federal officers or face “enforcement actions.”
• Grantees who violate these insurance policies may lose their transportation funding, Duffy stated. “It’s the coverage of the Division to award and to proceed to offer Federal monetary help solely to these recipients who adjust to their authorized obligations,” per the letter.
• The DOT might audit grantees and take again funding used for unpermitted actions, in keeping with the letter. Duffy urged transportation companies to contact a DOT consultant proactively to make sure they’re in compliance.

Dive Perception:

Duffy’s new letter places DOT funding recipients on discover, citing situations the place grantees didn’t cooperate with ICE and different immigration enforcement investigations or issued driver’s licenses to individuals within the U.S. illegally, and warns that such actions “might give rise to civil and prison legal responsibility.” He additionally informed grantees to make sure that they’re hiring subcontractors and different companies which might be permitted to work within the U.S. and that completely make use of legally permitted staff.

Since assuming workplace, Duffy has authorized a series of actions to advance Trump’s directive to “rescind woke insurance policies” and slash rules, whereas vowing to offer grant choice to areas with higher-than-average birth rates. Final month, the DOT rolled again a Biden-era coverage that included environmental and social considerations for projects it funds. 

In an April 2 listening to, Duffy defended the Trump administration’s freeze on already-approved tasks so companies can assessment them for mentions of local weather change, environmental justice or fairness. He didn’t say whether or not grant awards that aren’t but finalized might be rescinded, however promised to enact the desire of Congress in the case of funding infrastructure: “I’m not going to carry up any tasks.”

Duffy’s letter additionally stated funding recipients should not interact in “discriminatory actions” whereas administering contracts, hiring or in different insurance policies and procedures, and to make personnel choices based mostly on benefit. Grantees are additionally prohibited from allocating award cash “based mostly on suspect classifications.”

“Whether or not or not described in impartial phrases, any coverage, program, or exercise that’s premised on a prohibited classification, together with discriminatory insurance policies or practices designed to realize so-called ‘variety, fairness, and inclusion,’ or ‘DEI’ objectives, presumptively violates Federal regulation,” in keeping with the letter.

In an interview Thursday on Fox Business, Duffy reiterated that Democrat-led states that don’t adjust to the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal regulation will see their transportation funding minimize, AOL reported.

“Hopefully, this may incentivize these states to get in keeping with commonsense American rules and insurance policies, which the president has laid out. In the event that they do, they don’t have an issue,” Duffy stated within the Fox interview. “But when they don’t comply, we’re not going to approve their grants and the stream of billions of {dollars} into their states.”