Chicago (AP) – Immediately He was confirmed as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Transportation, Shawn Duffy He distributed a memo to his department, particularly by prioritizing communities with higher marriage and fertility rates than the national average when awarding grants, instructing his department to prioritize families. .
Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal last week called the order “deeply scary,” while Washington Democrat Sen. Patty Murray called it a “disquiet dystopian.”
The memo also calls for Department of Transport funds to impose vaccines, mask mandates and ban governments calling for cooperation with the administration's immigration enforcement efforts.
Such changes could benefit projects in the majority of Republican states, as hundreds of billions of dollars of transport money are still undistributed from the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021.
State controlled by Democrats generally have been more resistant to mask and vaccine rules to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and Trump's immigration attacks.
More births for more roads?
All administrators set their own rules for selecting transport projects to prioritize. However, some of Duffy's directives were taken as very unusual.
“The distribution of marriage and fertility rates based on transportation funding is odd and a bit creepy,” said Kevin DeGud, senior director of infrastructure and housing policy at the Left-Level Center for Progress in America. “States and regions with an aging population tend to have lower birth rates on average. Is it somehow not worth transport investment?”
According to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2022, 14 states with the highest fertility rates in the November election supported Trump, while the District of Columbia supported Democrat Kamala Harris. Marriage rates tend to be high and distorted even in red, but the margins are smaller.
Vice President JD Vance is long Expressed concern Decline in fertility rate, quote The needs of the national economy and the inherent value of children.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn raised the idea of linking transport funds to population growth at Duffy's confirmation hearing.
“People have left some of these blue states and come to places like Tennessee,” she said. “And this means that we need to see where these federal highway dollars are being spent and put them in areas where there is an increasing need, not areas where there is a loss of population. Masu.”
Sarah Hayford, a professor and director of sociology at Ohio State University's Institute of Population, said he has never heard of the fertility rates used to prioritize funding.
“I was a little surprised,” she said. “In many cases, fertility policies are trying to address challenges and barriers to people who have no children, which seems to be more focused on rewarding people for having already had children. is.”
Since 2007, the US birth rate has been declining, and Hayford is partly due to economic uncertainty during the Great Recession. She said the research links higher birth rates to areas with a higher education.
Beth Jaros, senior program director for the Nonpartisan and Nonprofit Population References Office, said long-standing traffic policies already take into account where children live.
“If what you're trying to do is support your family, then fertility rates aren't necessarily the best way to do that,” she said.
The Ministry of Transport has not answered questions about the memo.
So far, lawmakers and advocates have not noticed the birth and marriage rates associated with non-transport grants.
The blue state is pushed back
Blumenthal said that the focus on the Transport Secretary's fertility and marriage rates is “reminiscent of what may be seen in the People's Republic of China.”
“In that face, it's social engineering. But obviously, it's a dagger aimed at the blue state,” he said. “If you look at the numbers, it's patently discriminatory. The standard is designed to punish blue and mandatory states and change legitimate policies regarding tolls, vaccines and immigration.”
Rep. Kwaisi Muhume, a Maryland Democrat, said he fears that Duffy's instructions will harm some of the grants already announced. “A highway from anywhere.”
“If that's an effort to reward the Red State, he should just go ahead and say it,” Muhume said. “If not, there will be a lot of challenges from states and advocacy groups that have no choice but to fight back, and that fight will be legal.”
However, Jarosz said the political intentions of the policy are unknown, and communities in California such as San Diego and Sacramento are above the national average in terms of birth rates, but certain rural areas in the country are He says there is.
Is this legal?
Legal experts say it's too early to know if something in Duffy's memo could be hit by the court.
While it is difficult to make legal arguments to fund equally based on political affiliation, federal law protects against discrimination against race, gender, and disability.
Joel Roberson, who handles transportation and infrastructure cases at the Washington, DC law firm Holland & Knight, said the government has extensive authority to set its own standards for awarding money. . However, the community refused to file a lawsuit claiming that the funds would withstand illegal “different effects.”
As to whether Trump can redirect transportation awarded under Biden, Roberson said it depends heavily on the situation of the project and whether Congress has already allocated funds.
State transport officials are expressing confidence that the new guidelines will set their own transportation priorities and will not affect road construction on federal funds used by the state. However, many other grants are awarded at the discretion of the administration in power.
The status of discretionary grants already approved, like the contract signed just before former President Joe Biden left his office, is less clear. A $5.7 billion project Add four new L stations to South Side Chicago.
Former state attorney general and federal prosecutor Blumenthal said Duffy's order created “uncertainty and confusion” and pointed out that it didn't have the legal weight of laws or regulations. . He predicted that the court would ultimately reject the policy.
“Anyone can write a note,” Blumental said.
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Hay was reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
