The Department of Transport (DOT) is working through a backlog of around 3,200 grant awards that have not signed a contract to go with them.
“Since taking office, my team has discovered an unprecedented backlog of grants left over from the previous administration,” Duffy revealed in a statement weeks ago.
According to the Rhode Island government, one of these backlogged grants was the Washington Bridge in Rhode Island.
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At a press conference at the White House on January 30th, Transport Secretary Shawn Duffy and President Donald Trump shook hands. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This backlog prevented the actual infrastructure from being built and funded, along with the requirements of the outrageous DEI and Green New Deal. Under the Trump administration, we’ve torn this deficit and come back to what’s important,” Duffy said. “As part of our work to provide real results, we are pleased to announce $221 million in the Washington Bridge grant in Rhode Island, which is an important link that carries thousands of vehicles a day.”
A DOT spokesman told Fox News Digital in the background that the backlog totaled $43 billion and that 1,000 grant recipients were selected by the Biden administration after Trump won, but that they would need to make up for the total of $9 billion before then-President Joe Biden retired.
However, the department said “nothing was done to actually sign these grant agreements and send them to the project.”
Dot further noted that it is “quickly reviewing” grants and considering “executive grant agreements” for major infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges.
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Pete Battigeg, then Director of Transportation, will speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 21, 2024. (Aldrago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Duffy said “most of them are good” during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump on April 10 regarding the Roads and Bridge Grant Awards, but while the Biden administration announced the grants, many of those contracts would not be signed and addressed.
Duffy also reiterated that the project also has “green and social justice requirements.”
“Take it out,” Trump said.
“We’re pulling it all out and spending money on infrastructure, not on social movements from the last administration,” the secretary replied.
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The construction crew works on August 4, 2007 in the eastbound lane of Washington Bridge in Providence, Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Stew Milne, File)
“Good steel, in contrast to Green Paper Mach,” the president threw in the room to laugh.
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The Trump administration has been adamantly affirmed overall about scrutiny of federal funds that have been ignored through grants, especially when it was believed to have ideological strings. Shortly after Duffy’s confirmation, he abolished the Dot Equity Council and other “environmental justice”-related measures.
Also, as project costs continue to rise, DOT also says that critics of the project have had little results so far, based on federal government investigations on California’s high-speed rail projects.
