As lawmakers begin the process of developing the next multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy outlined his goals of building infrastructure with fewer regulatory hurdles and increased safety standards during a U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works hearing April 2.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 included a five-year reauthorization and added about $550 billion over baseline levels for various highway, bridge, rail, transit, airport and port and inland waterway projects. The authorization is set to expire at the end of September 2026. Neither the committee’s senators nor Duffy got into dollar figures for the next reauthorization bill, but the transportation secretary said he will do as Congress instructs when it comes to funding infrastructure.

“I’m not going to hold up any projects,” Duffy said. 

Several senators questioned Duffy on the status of funding for projects in their home states. President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs and environmental efforts have raised concerns about federal money going out as awarded. And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), ranking member of the committee, questioned whether the search for “MAGA hobgoblins and heresies” in grant agreements and project documents as a result of the president’s orders could be delaying work. 

Duffy said money that has been obligated is continuing to go out. However, he repeatedly emphasized that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has a backlog of 3,200 grants it has awarded but not yet finalized. Those grant awards were announced as long ago as 2022, and hundreds of them were announced in the last few months of the Biden administration, according to Duffy. 

“The fun part was the announcement,” he said. “We have to do the work of doing the grant agreement with the states, and we’re going to work through that as quickly as possible. But it is a historically large number.”

Duffy did not say whether any un-finalized grant awards could be rescinded. DOT has already realigned the language in notices of funding opportunity to remove what Duffy called “green and social justice requirements” because they came from the Biden administration, rather than Congress. 

“I’m actually complying with the will of Congress by pulling it out, because it’s going to take longer and cost more” with the Biden administration’s requirements, Duffy claimed. 

Duffy expressed support for moving more regulatory power from the federal government to states “to streamline the process.” Based on questions from senators, that may include environmental reviews. 

Duffy also highlighted an example of a successfully expedited project, with the ongoing repairs to Interstate 40 in North Carolina and Tennessee following Hurricane Helene last year. 

“We found creative ways to source materials closer to the job site, saving taxpayers both time and money,” he said. “It is this kind of innovation and problem solving that moves projects faster and more efficiently.”

Movement of People and Goods

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the chair of the committee, outlined her own vision for the reauthorization bill “to improve the movement of people and goods” during the hearing. She identified three principles she wants to focus on for the legislation, which seem to align with Duffy’s goals. 

Capito said she first wants to improve the safety and reliability of the country’s surface transportation network, and indicated that would include optimizing the impact of federal funding by eliminating duplicative programs and increasing funding for formula programs for state highway funding. 

The next priority for Capito is to modernize federal programs and policies to increase efficiency. She highlighted planning and procurement procedures, environmental reviews and requirements for discretionary grants and loans as areas to be reformed. And Capito’s final principle for the bill is to address the variety of surface transportation needs across different states. 

“I wouldn’t expect West Virginia, with our mountainous peaks and valleys, to prioritize the same transportation projects in other states and other parts of the country,” Capito said. “By avoiding top-down mandates from Washington, and giving states flexibility to address the individual improvements, I think that is what we need to be looking at.”