The Trump Administration has reportedly issued a new memo to state transportation agencies that could have sweeping impacts on millions of dollars in Portland transportation infrastructure projects. According to Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute, who shared the news via Bluesky Monday morning, an email from US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has ordered DOTs to re-examine all projects funded with federal grants since 2022 to make sure they comply with Trump’s priorities and executive orders.
Duffy said any grant awards, “when the primary purpose [of the project] is bicycle infrastructure” could get the axe. Duffy’s memo says projects will also need to be scaled back or unfunded if they specifically address: “Equity activities, diversity, equity and inclusion activities, climate change activities, environmental justice activities, gender specific activities, when the primary purpose is bicycle infrastructure (i.e. recreational trails and shared use paths, etc.), electric vehicles, and EV charging infrastructure,” or if they, “improve the condition for environmental justice communities or actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Where the scope of the project includes elements noted above,” the memo reads, “update project scopes to eliminate and, where possible, replace those identified elements with relevant elements that align with… current Administration executive orders.”
The new order would apply to projects that have been awarded a grant, but that have not yet spent the funding.
The League of American Bicyclists said in a statement yesterday, “These grants aren’t ideological, they are based on the local priorities for safer streets. People in these communities want these projects, and the states applied for these grants to better serve their citizens.”
As of January 28th, 2025, the City of Portland has $163.6 million in active federal transportation grants (which account for $48% of all the city’s federal grants, the largest portion of any category).
Here are some USDOT-funded transportation projects in Portland that could be subject to this new directive. Please note: I found these grant awards using the USA Spending website and by creating search filters that matched the USDOT memo; but this list has not been confirmed with the City of Portland:
- Protected bike lanes in the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s $3.5 million “Safe Streets & Roads for All” grant to improve safety on 122nd Avenue.
- PBOT’s $2 million Zero-Emission Delivery Zone project grant, which seeks to reduce emissions in the urban core.
- An $800,000 grant to PBOT for their Reconnecting Albina Planning Project that aims to create a governance structure for new land created by I-5 freeway covers in the Lloyd area.
- A $1.7 million PBOT project that would build bicycle and pedestrian upgrades on NE 57th Avenue/Cully Blvd between Klickitat and Prescott.
- A $1.6 million grant to PBOT for the 148th Avenue Safety and Access to Transit project that would build protected bike lanes and other safety upgrades on 148th between SE Powell and NE Halsey.
- A $585,000 grant for protected bike lanes on SE Stark and Washington Streets between SE 92nd and 109th.
- $3.4 million in multiple grants for the Jade and Montavilla Multimodal Improvements Project.
- A $2.4 million Metro grant to, “advance equity outcomes and pedestrian safety in the greater Portland region.”
- An $866,000 grant to build a new, carfree bridge over N Columbia Blvd to connect the Willamette Greenway Trail between Pier Park and Kelley Point Park.
- A $1 million PBOT grant that will add new bikeways and multi-use paths on NE Halsey near I-84.
The City of Portland has not yet responded to a request for comment, but a webpage on federal policy impacts published after Trump’s initial grant funding pause back in January states, “The City will continue to monitor decisions at the federal level and respond to the changing grants landscape. While any long-term impacts remain unclear, potential outcomes could be delays in reimbursements and project work, modifications in grant terms, or attempts at contract cancellations.”
The Oregon Department of Transportation also has a new federal funding webpage, but it hasn’t been updated to respond to this latest policy order.
Stay tuned for developments.
Learn more via Streetsblog.
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Sean Duffy is unqualified to be transportation secretary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Duffy
In 1997, Duffy appeared on The Real World: Boston, the sixth season of the MTV reality television show, and on Road Rules: All Stars, a Winnebago driving event, in 1998, where he met his future wife Rachel Campos. Duffy later appeared on Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons, which aired in 2002. Both appeared in a filmed segment on 2008’s The Real World Awards Bash, while Duffy served as district attorney.
Duffy has been an ESPN color commentator for televised competitions and in 2003 appeared as both a competitor and commentator on ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games. He was named Badger State Games Honorary Athlete of the 2004 Winter Games.
In his first act in office on January 29, Duffy signed a memorandum directing his department to immediately rescind and replace all existing corporate average fuel economy standards and eliminate the electric vehicle tax incentives instituted by the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. In an additional memo, Duffy ordered that Transportation Department-supported programs and activities “shall prioritize projects and goals that … to the extent practicable, relevant, appropriate, and consistent with law, mitigate the unique impacts of DOT programs, policies, and activities on families and family-specific difficulties, such as the accessibility of transportation to families with young children, and give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.”
When the only qualification is being a yes man for these backwards policies, he unfortunately appears to be fully qualified.
So he’s about as qualified as the quisling democratic senate that just rubber stamped fascism.
Really goes to show how much we desperately need to have collective local action for funding these projects. Sean Duffy is a whole other level of brain dead ideological thinking.
Mmmmm, as a comms professional, I firmly believe Portland should be pouring ALL federal dollars into protecting motor vehicle drivers … from hitting pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, etc. Get them encumbrances who otherwise clog our streets out of the way! That’s how all those dollars are ALL going to safer transit of motor vehicles through Portland!
Think of how much faster and easier it will be for motor vehicle drivers once all those other non-motor vehicle folks are diverted from the good, real road onto that new namby pamby carfree bridge!
Exactly. Infrastructure designed to improve traffic flow by removing conflicts with non-motorized vehicles from traffic lanes and/or streets.
We all know that there is never enough space on our city streets for all the modes using them – light rail, tram, bus, cars, trucks, delivery vans, bicycles, walkers, ADA devices, skateboards, and other modes – and that even when a stroad has no sidewalks or bike lanes car drivers still crash into each other, often fatally.
Thanks to the inspired and enlightened common-sense leadership of President Trump and Transportation Secretary Duffy, we now have a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix our transportation conflicts, massively reduce fatalities AND support our climate change initiatives.
Currently and over the past century or so we have developed exclusive systems for water freight, railroads, and air travel whereby we have inter-modal transfer stations (ports, depots, and air terminals) that allow users to switch between modes. What President Trump and Transportation Secretary Duffy are giving us is a golden opportunity to do the same with automobiles.
We already have a network of auto-only roadways (interstates, tollways, and parkways), so what we need to do is enhance this system by creating a second system of auto storage units at the end of each interchange – basically car users would get to an offramp and park their automobiles into parking garages that would sometimes hold tens of thousands of automobiles – users would then switch to some other mode depending what is on offer: trains, light rail, city bus, bicycle, walking, etc. In essence, areas away from the car-only environment would be entirely car-free.
Freight moved by trucks and vans would be more or less local-only; long-distance freight movements would require transfers to/from rail, water transport, or air cargo (such facilities already exist). Even rural areas could have Swiss-postal style bus service and local freight delivery.
Wut?? I think you’ve got it wrong here, David. What they are proposing is car/truck ONLY infrastructure. That’s the only thing they say they will spend our tax dollars on.
I sure as hell didn’t sign up for THAT.
Your federal tax dollars can be “just on cars & trucks”, but most infrastructure these days is paid for with local and state funding, as the portion of federal funding is increasingly less important in most places. And if you segregate the auto mode just to auto-oriented infrastructure, what’s left can be a lot safer and more useful for other modes, which will continue to be funded locally and by states.
Not in Portland, unless by “local and state funding” you mean vehicle-derived funding, such as state gas tax and meter revenues. In Oregon, we can’t use state-level gas tax revenue for anything non-vehicle related, as per the state constitution.
Realistically, why should it be the job of the feds to plunk down led/bike infrastructure at all in a state? Because you know it’s just going to the most influential senator.
The state knows that bike infrastructure is practically immortal with that it doesn’t get damaged by bikes. So when the state creates it , it essentially lives on past anyone’s lifetime. Like sidewalks.
Cars pay a fuel tax nationwide so hence, it’s reasonable the feds spread that around. But not bikes. I love bikes but the reality is, it does t make sense.
I sure wish Oregon built more of this immortal, separated bike infrastructure that you write of. In reality, most of the bike infrastructure is just a hardened bike lane in the roadway that is shared with cars.
The highway trust fund supported by the federal fuel tax is structurally insolvent. It requires periodic infusion from the general fund to exist. Without another infusion in the next two years, it will be empty by 2028.
Indeed. But that doesn’t justify themes sprinkling dollars around the country based on favors to senators for bike infra or opaque projects as payoffs to organizations that support said policies. The national fuel tax should double like yesterday. And it should be redistributed by truck miles only. We know that number.
All other modes should be handled by the states. Oregon should be like number one in protecting life outside a car. Instead they are spending millions on cars. It’s just weird.
The really sinister part is about sending funds to states with “high birth rates,” meaning red states like Florida and Texas that have few environmental standards and allow building everywhere, while blue states like NY, CA, and even OR are starved of funding.
Not fair! We all pay in and should all get funding back.
I see no reason that the states should be on the hook for non-car transportation investments while the feds are doling out freeway bucks. The whole idea that gas taxes have to be spent on freeway investments is an antiquated and archaic way of thinking.
“The whole idea that gas taxes have to be spent on freeway investments is an antiquated and archaic way of thinking.”
I completely agree, though in Oregon, our constitution restricts gas tax to transportation spending. However, I have long argued that transportation infrastructure is just another cost of government, and gas taxes are just another revenue source, and keeping them separate from the rest of the budget makes no fiscal sense.
Safety infrastructure like protected bike lanes, safe crossings and sidewalks is car infrastructure. It wouldn’t be necessary if driving wasn’t so dangerous. Public safety is in the interest of everyone including drivers 40k deaths and millions of injuries a year costs us all a ton of money much more than gets spent on bike bridges named after a congressman.
Total: $18 million. That’s how much money ODOT has lost in the couch cushions. They’ve recently spent $100 million on planning for freeway projects that may never happen.
Bike and pedestrian infrastructure is relatively cheap to build. It’s labor intensive so the money tends to stay home and circulate in the economy. Finally, bike and ped projects are meant to protect vulnerable road users. Freeway lane miles don’t save lives, they just encourage more driving.
We can find $18 million. We can’t afford to buck up matching funds for overbuilt freeway projects with an untrustworthy federal partner, in tandem with a state highway department that can’t plan and build projects on time or within a budget.
They didn’t lose it, that was always intended as a payoff to friends
No – they actually lost it, in the accounting sense. Read up on the accounting angle – lots of good reporting on it.
I can’t say that you are mistaken / somebody needs to geek out on the ODOT budget. I feel like I need a bigger screen.
Presidents in general have zero influence on local project designs; even Congress’ influence is pretty limited. Chances are the unbuilt projects will delayed so long anyway that they will be done during the next president’s term after the next.
David, you’re assuming that the federal government is operating under the norms of three equal branches, with the power of the purse wielded by the legislative branch. The Duning-Kruger kids at DOGE got access to the Treasury payments system, and currently the executive is grabbing control over payments from the Federal government to whomever they don’t support.
Most alarming, a couple of weeks ago rump clawed back a payment which *had already been made and cleared* to the City of New York. In other words, the feds got into NYC’s account at CitiBank and removed $80M. That undermines the integrity of our entire system of financial transactions, the ACH.
Read “Notes on the Crisis” substack by Nathan Turkus (sp) for breaking news on this.
How did that impact the local design?
Cuz the local design is moot if you don’t have funding to build it.
A lack of funding has never stopped PBOT from designing and re-designing numerous bike projects.
Trying to look on the bright side, maybe state agencies drunk on federal funding will get a grip on their budgets. Take ODOT…
I just threw away the rest of this comment. It’s enough to say that once you discard your assumptions about government there are a lot of possibilities.
Bike and transportation diversity projects are low-hanging fruit for DOGE, barely a drop in the bucket. Next they’ll go after transit projects, then highway projects in Blue states, then highway projects in Red states, and lastly highway projects in swing states, then after that water and sewer upgrade projects. The process of sitting on federal funds for years before spending the money through deficit financing was a process promoted by Robert Moses and condemned by many on both the left and right, as we lose value over time due to inflation while meanwhile people keep dying from needed infrastructure upgrades that keep getting delayed for political reasons. Ending this process is long overdue, IMO.
It’s not like the present lame-duck administration is worried about the next election.
This is called a reversal and is evidence of how robust the integrity of the ACH is. It is literally the only mechanism that protects payees from erroneous payments being gone forever, at least without costly litigation. It may be inconvenient to your politics, but it certainly is not a failure of the ACH.
I didn’t criticize the ACH. I said that the executive branch is breaking contracts and the law. There is a legal concept of “finality” in transactions, which means that one party can’t willy-nilly claw back a payment by unilaterally reversing it. Yes, transactions can be reversed, but that requires some effort external to the ACH system.
That’s not my politics, it’s the US constitution and financial norms.
Did the payee say the payor received the funds erroneously? If so, the funds are eligible to be reversed. The courts can decide if the payee is in breach.
If you go into the Substack piece that Lisa C. mentioned, kids who have nothing to lose, and are fully disposable, are essentially flipping the breakers in the U. S. Treasury payment system. The reason people are being locked out of buildings is, they don’t want witnesses. Everyone with legal authority to act is cut out of the loop. It’s the same old Rick Parry ‘oh the Energy Department has nukes?’ business except they’re doing it in the dark, with hammers.
Well, if you, Lisa and Nathan Turkus are right, a lot of things should start breaking soon. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Bike projects in are on the chopping block in Portland and nationally. Plus labor protections, Medicare, environmental protection, equal rights protections, civil liberties, and the rule of law and the constitutionally mandated 3 co-equal branches of government are likewise in jeopardy. Meanwhile our new president appears to be intentionally tanking the economy and that makes the disruption of bike projects in Portland seem trivial.
What I think about with the current administration is that they don’t just get to do whatever they want – erase history, wipe away safe streets for all etc.
No one elected a dictator. We all need to push back.
What will happen to Vision Zero?
Vision Zero? That was a bust. Let’s move on.