Three Weeks In: Impacts of the New Administration’s Actions on Safe Routes

A lot has happened in Washington in the past three weeks. We at the Safe Routes Partnership are gathering intel and as things become clearer, we will continue to advocate for funding and policies that support walking, biking and Safe Routes while centering the people within this movement. In the meantime, while things are in flux, we wanted to pass along information about how the current state of affairs may impact our issues, plus some actions you can take now.

1. Funding freeze

On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order freezing the disbursement of all federal aid.  We have since seen Office of Management and Budget memos elaborating on the order, pauses on the order, and judges halting implementation of the order.  While it is unclear how this will ultimately shake out, we do know that the Administration is prioritizing eliminating funding for projects and programs it sees as promoting climate change and/or equity. 

What does this mean for Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling?

As a formula program administered by the states, Transportation Alternatives is continuing as intended. States continue to award projects and have the ability to disburse federal funding to projects they have obligated funding for. Most Safe Routes to School infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects that receive federal funds are funded with Transportation Alternatives dollars and should be unaffected at this point.

However, projects funded through discretionary programs (those administered by US DOT), like Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A), Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP), Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE), Reconnecting Communities, etc. have a less certain future. While the funding freeze is currently blocked by the courts, if it is permitted to take effect, already-awarded projects could be rescinded.

Take Action: What to do about this?

In this moment, a step each of us can take is to reach out to our Members of Congress to educate* them about the programs that matter to us, our communities, and the negative impact of the funding freeze.

If you have a project that has been awarded, but the funding is now uncertain (SS4A, for example), contact your Member of Congress to let them know the benefit of that program to your community, and ask for their help in protecting your project or helping you find alternative funding for it – such as through Congressionally Directed Spending (aka “earmarks”). It is critical that offices hear from you that this funding matters to you, and how eliminating it would impact your community!

* Note the critical word here used is “educate” – calling your Member of Congress to let them know your sentiment on an issue, particularly letting them know how something affects you does not constitute lobbying. Even public agency staff can contact elected representatives to educate them about an issue. (Lobbying = asking a member to vote a certain way on a specific piece of legislation).  You can look up your Members of Congress here.

2. New priorities in discretionary grant making

New US DOT Secretary Sean Duffy released a memo on his first day in the position articulating a directive for the agency to prioritize funding to reflect the following priorities:

• User-pay models
• Local opportunity zones
• Prohibiting funding to places with vaccine or mask mandates
• Requiring compliance and cooperation with Federal immigration enforcement
• Supporting families and accessibility of transportation to families with young children
• Preference to communities with higher than national average marriage and birth rates

What does this mean for Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling?

These priorities should not be able to impact the formula funds, under which Transportation Alternatives lives, as those are decisions made by states.  However, if the Administration moves forward with future rounds of discretionary grants like Safe Streets for All, it is likely that applicants will need to come up with new ways of making the case for their projects that fit revised Administration priorities.  Safe Routes to School advocates should be prepared to help make the case for how projects can help families and caregivers with the daily transportation challenges of getting children to and from school and other key destinations.

Take Action: steps to take now

• Craft talking points about how Safe Routes to School supports families with a daily transportation issue, shift your narrative to center the user experience for families, caregivers, and students

• Begin gathering statistics on the number of families/students served by your program. For more general statistics, consider pulling together statistics on the number of students in your school district, number of children ages 0-18, data on your school district website or from local surveys or plans about transportation hardships
  • Helpful resources include: National Center for Education Statistics, Data.Census.Gov site for your local data, and the CDC’s Vital Statistics site  (all live as of time of publication)

 

Eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); Gender; and Climate Policies, Programs, and Funding Agreements

A second memo issued by US DOT Secretary Sean Duffy directs the agency to comply with President Trump’s executive orders ending federal funding for DEI, rescinding funding from climate programs, and rejecting “gender ideology”.

What does this mean for Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling?

In addition to scrubbing the US DOT website, guidance documents, policy statements, and beyond of mention environmental justice, Justice40, racial equity, greenhouse gas emissions, gender identity and other keywords, it is possible that funding agreements made under programs related to climate provisions and programs that explicitly focus on equity within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law may be rescinded. As stated above, the majority of Safe Routes to School projects are funded under the Transportation Alternatives Program, and as a formula program in which states determine prioritization, in theory they should be unscathed by this provision. However, it remains to be seen exactly which programs fall under this memo and then which projects may see funding rescinded or not disbursed.

Take Action: steps to take now

• As people who care about the well-being of others and respect the humanity of our community members, we continue to lead with engagement. In this moment, that might mean showing up for others, especially those directly targeted by this new administration and asking what they need.
• Think about different ways to frame the work you do. Safe Routes to School offers so many co-benefits to kids and communities. Use this time to think creatively about how you might focus or elevate different benefits of Safe Routes to School in this new context. Focus on changing how you talk about your work more than on directly changing your work. 
• Like with the funding freeze, we suggest reaching out to your Member of Congress to let them know about projects your community has received and wants to implement.

As we have for the past two decades, we will continue to keep you apprised of how federal policy impacts the Safe Routes to School movement. Follow along to our federal policy updates, and stay tuned for more information and analysis.