DOT will cut funds to transportation projects with DEI: Duffy

Dive Temporary:

• In an April 24 letter, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned DOT funding recipients in opposition to partaking in range, fairness and inclusion practices, which he stated violate federal regulation. Duffy additionally instructed grantees that they need to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and different federal officers or face “enforcement actions.”
• Grantees who violate these insurance policies might lose their transportation funding, Duffy stated. “It’s the coverage of the Division to award and to proceed to supply Federal monetary help solely to these recipients who adjust to their authorized obligations,” per the letter.
• The DOT could 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 cases 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 “could give rise to civil and felony legal responsibility.” He additionally instructed grantees to make sure that they’re hiring subcontractors and different companies which are 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 laws, 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 initiatives so companies can overview 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 He didn’t say whether or not grant awards that aren’t but finalized could possibly be rescinded, however promised to enact the desire of Congress on the subject of funding infrastructure: “I’m not going to carry up any initiatives.”

Duffy’s letter additionally stated funding recipients should not have interaction in “discriminatory actions” whereas administering contracts, hiring or in different insurance policies and procedures, and to make personnel selections primarily based on advantage. Grantees are additionally prohibited from allocating award cash “primarily based 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 attain so-called ‘range, fairness, and inclusion,’ or ‘DEI’ targets, 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 according to 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 circulate of billions of {dollars} into their states.”