Transportation dollars typically guaranteed to states by Congress now face an additional layer of review by U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy "to ensure compliance with current Administration priorities" — even as the Trump administration has promised to cut red tape and costly delays, new federal guidance says.
According to an email obtained by Streetsblog from the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the Federal Highway Administration recently told its field offices that "there is no pause" on providing states with their "formula" transportation dollars, which are distributed based on a calculation determined by Congress and which DOTs can largely spend on whatever projects they identify as important.
FHWA officials did say, though, that they were "working quickly to ensure that [those projects were] ... in compliance with the DOT orders" — without clarifying which specific orders they meant. Secretary Duffy, however, has issued a raft of orders since he took office committing to "to rescind, cancel, revoke, and terminate" transportation projects that promote what he calls "woke" and "green" agendas, as well as committing to steer DOT grant-making based on non-transportation GOP political priorities, like a state's marriage and birth rates or compliance with federal deportation policies.
That added layer of review — as well as the uncertain priorities guiding it – have left state and local transportation officials wondering whether they will receive expected funding on schedule — or at all.
"States are responding differently with how to handle this," said Transportation for America's Corrigan Salerno. "FHWA's state offices are giving inconsistent and varied guidance, while U.S. DOT's Office of the Secretary has been unclear about the reason for modification. It's an effective pause and it's being interpreted as such by states and MPOs."
The TIP of the iceberg
Transportation projects that receive federal funding according to congressionally approved formulas haven't historically faced much scrutiny from top U.S. DOT officials. But Duffy has embraced President Trump's "anti-woke" agenda since he took office, building on executive orders targeting climate and social justice initiatives and Elon Musk's DOGE efforts, often in defiance of federal law. (He has also attempted to kill New York City's congestion pricing effort, on what experts call specious grounds, at the behest of the president.)
State departments of transportation and local metropolitan planning organizations have gotten mixed messages from the feds about the status of their projects, according to federal transportation advocates.
"When you say something is 'not a pause', but then make everyone put billions of dollars in investments on hold for individual approval of plans over an unclear period of time for an undefined review, then what are you doing if not pausing and delaying projects?" Salerno added.
Salerno explains that the projects now under review all come from a key list each state is required to produce called a State Transportation Improvement Program, as well as its equivalent for component metro regions, the Transportation Improvement Program, both of which detail how states plan to spend federal funds.
State DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations determine the projects on that list, then submits it for final approval from the FHWA — though in practice, that approval is largely an administrative formality, and DOTs are given broad latitude over what they actually build.
If Secretary Duffy's review is unsually aggressive, though, advocates fear that good projects could be cancelled — and more tangibly, that those projects will surge in cost. Everything from transit upgrades to new bridges and roads hang in the balance.
"The concern about the guidance is how to make sure that projects are in compliance, or these amendments are in compliance with federal priorities," said Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro. "One certain impact is this will slow down projects right across the country."
STIP and TIP amendments — meaning projects newly included on lists for how states plan to spend their federal funding — are typically reviewed by FHWA and FTA regional offices, not the office of the Secretary. But state DOTs have been informed that those amendments will now go directly to U.S. DOT headquarters "for additional review and approval," according to a memo from the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The memo, which the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization shared with Streetsblog, said the reviews "will most likely add additional time for any amendments to be approved."
As a result of the new layer of federal bureaucracy, Indiana DOT "will not be processing new projects or phase additions to projects that are further out than January 2026 at this time," the memo said.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation, meanwhile, is "not currently experiencing delays. However, if STIP amendments do not begin being processed soon, it could have an impact," said Josh Morgan, a spokesman for the agency. "We’re eager for a return to regular processing of these documents."
Similarly, in Washington state, officials told Streetsblog they're bracing for potential impacts but hoping for more clarity from the feds.
"We are working closely with federal partners to gain further clarity and guidance on any federal-level changes. As such we do not have any project specific information at this point," WSDOT spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe said in a statement. "One thing we’re monitoring is timing, because extended reviews could cause delays in contract advertisements, awards, start dates, etc., which are already a challenge with narrow construction seasons for most of our work."
Tomer acknowledged that it's typical for new presidential administrations to set new priorities for how federal funding gets allocated. But it's a "fundamentally different approach," he said, for U.S. DOT headquarters to review projects controlled by state and local governments to ensure they match up with those new Trump-era priorities.
Any moves by Duffy to reverse funding allocations set by the Biden administration or Congress could push U.S. DOT towards a constitutional crisis, which experts say is already clouding the work of several federal agencies in the new Trump era.
"The vast majority of the projects are formula funds; they didn't need to apply for permission," said Tomer. "This is money that goes directly to them per the congressional law. U.S. DOT's just responsible for, basically, reviewing these projects to make sure they're in compliance with [the law] — not executive orders."
Neither the Federal Highway Administration nor the Federal Transit Administration — the U.S. DOT sub-agencies responsible for the funding in question — responded to a request for comment.
