The GOP's "one big, beautiful" budget bill is "big, bad" news for America's transportation future, environmental groups warn, unless advocates can organize to get the Republican-controlled Senate to fix it.
The House passed its controversial 1,000-plus-page budget reconciliation bill by a razor thin 215-214 margin last week, handing down a slate of troubling measures that experts argue will kick millions of people off Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, bar transgender minors and adults from accessing gender-affirming healthcare through government programs, "effectively halt the clean energy boom," impose a new $1,000 fee on immigrants seeking asylum, and much more.
The bill will more than double the current deficit despite steep cuts to social safety net and climate programs, which experts say will be largely used to offset tax perks for the ultra-rich. According to Rep. Rick Larsen (D–Wash.), ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the legislation will benefit the top 0.1 percent of wealthiest Americans by an average of $255,000 a year, or about $700 a day.
"This budget is so terrible that the GOP had to force it through in the dead of night," wrote Larsen in a statement following last Wednesday's vote (thought two Republicans did cross the aisle to vote no with the Democrats). "The fight isn’t over, and I will keep working to defeat this bill as the legislative process continues."
Let's focus in on a few of the implications for surface transportation and infrastructure, specifically.
The end of the EV tax credit...
In one of the biggest blows to the nation's transportation decarbonization goals, the "One Big Beautiful Bill" would eliminate the $4,000 and $7,500 tax credits for used and new electric vehicles, respectively by the end of 2025, giving car buyers just over six months to snap up the rebate before it vanishes on Dec. 31. Those purchasing from automakers which have sold fewer than 200,000 clean vehicles will be granted a little more time until those manufacturers meet their caps, at least until the end of 2026.
A electrification tax credit to qualified commercial vehicles was also axed, which means industrial vehicles that can't easily be replaced with other modes will continue spewing dangerous pollution into communities.
That's bad news for U.S. communities held tightest in the grip of car dependency, for which vehicle electrification represents the only realistic hope to slash emissions and remove harmful pollutants from residents' lungs, at least in the short term. And for those who could displace car trips through stronger local policy to support transit, biking, walking, and other green modes, it means it's more important than ever to take local action to bolster those modes now.
...and new fees for driving them
In addition to making it harder for U.S. residents to buy EVs, the One Big Beautiful Bill would also charge drivers a cool $250 a year just to register them — and the drivers of hybrid cars will have to pony up $100 a year, too.
Worse, none of that money would go to benefit transit, unlike the gas tax, which historically has devoted 20 percent of revenues to shared modes.
That move might have been intended to address shortfalls in the highway trust fund that powers America's core infrastructure programs, but Jeff Davis of the Eno Center for Transportation testified to Congress earlier this month that the fee "wouldn't come close to actually closing the amount of revenue that you need to get another five-year [surface transportation reauthorization] bill."
Steve Davis of Transportation for America, meanwhile, recently argued that "it’s not time to rescue the trust fund, it’s time to write its eulogy," and that we need to whittle America's transportation spending down to a scale we can actually afford rather than adding new fees — while focusing on projects that deliver on safety, reducing congestions, and reducing emissions. (Spoiler alert: a lot fewer highways.)
Some nasty rescissions
As previously reported by Streetsblog, perhaps the most devastating cut to the transportation sections of the budget bill is to the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program, which would lose a staggering 97 percent of its funding – basically, any dollar not yet formally obligated — and defund nearly a hundred projects aimed at reconnecting communities torn apart by past transportation investments.
The bill would also repeal all not-yet-obligated money in a fund designed to help communities do more efficient and effective environmental reviews, which initially totaled $100 million.
Another less-talked-about program called the Low Carbon Transportation Materials Discretionary Grant Program also got the axe, which would have devoted a total of $2 billion to helping agencies green the process of building roadways and other infrastructure before it's actually used — which can itself be a significant source of emissions.
In a release, House T&I chairman Sam Graves (R–Mo.) collectively called those three initiates "unnecessary Green New Deal style programs" that represented "progressive priorities that are either duplicative, are projects that states and other entities may pursue if they prioritize them, or are efforts that should be driven by the industry and not mandated by the federal government."
Americans who don't agree with that characterization can and should call their reps in the Senate to demand that funding be restored.
