#fix it first

[m4kkie]

Admit it, this is such A Look for him.

[rjzimmerman]

Activists Slam Biden Administration for Reversing Climate and Equity Guidance on Highway Expansions - Inside Climate News

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Environmental justice activists are chastising the Biden administration’s recent decision to rescind federal guidance that urged states to consider climate change and equity when tapping the $110 billion in federal infrastructure money that’s coming their way for roads, bridges and major projects.

In December 2021, Stephanie Pollack, the Federal Highway Administration’s acting administrator at the time, issued a memo that advised state transportation departments to use incoming money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to repair existing highways before expanding them or building new ones. She also encouraged them to take climate change and environmental justice into consideration when planning the projects.

Activists celebrated the announcement, saying the memo—known as “Fix It First”—aligned with President Joe Biden’s larger ambitions of tackling the climate crisis and taking a “whole-of-government” approach to reducing the nation’s persistent health and economic disparities. But the move also triggered a political battle about who has authority over discretionary spending, since local and state governments largely dictate how they use the  money they receive from the federal government.

A coalition of Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, quickly pushed back, with 16 GOP governors signing a letter that called it “a clear example of federal overreach.” In fact, Capito and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, former Senate Majority Leader under the Trump administration, explicitly told state governors to ignore the guidance, saying in a second letter that “the FHWA memorandum is an internal document, has no effect of law, and states should treat it as such.”

That pressure appears to have worked.

Last month, FHWA replaced its Fix It First guidance. The agency’s new administrator, Shailen Bhatt, issued a new memo that makes no reference to highway expansions, equity considerations or climate change. That prompted backlash from several climate and environmental justice groups who worry that it’s an early sign that the White House is caving on its climate and social justice commitments, which in turn could lead states and federal agencies to disregard them entirely.

“This memorandum not only shows unnecessary deference to the whims of some in Congress, it signals to the environmental justice community and climate advocates the administration’s move away from its equity and climate commitments,” nearly two dozen organizations, including Lawyers for Good Government, a group of attorneys and activists who advocate for social equality, wrote in a letter to Bhatt on Thursday. “This memorandum sets a dangerous precedent for other federal agencies.”

[brokensidewalk]

Report lists a short-and-sweet transportation to-do list for the next president

Report lists a short-and-sweet transportation to-do list for the next president

How can the next president improve American transportation policy?

Without wading into the spectacle that is the election, Beth Osborne, a former top official at the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) who’s now a vice president at Transportation for America, lays out a presidential agenda for transportation reform at The Century Foundation.

National transportation policy hasn’t…

View On WordPress