Recently, the U.S. Senate confirmed Sean Patrick Duffy as Secretary of Transportation (DOT) by a vote of 77-22. Duffy joins the new administration after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011-2019, representing Wisconsin’s 7th District. After leaving Congress, Duffy hosted the Fox show, “The Bottom Line with Dagen and Duffy.” One of Duffy’s first actions as the new Secretary was issuing an executive order revising criteria for federal funding.

As outlined in his press release, the order calls for specific actions to align federal transportation funding and projects with the new administration’s priority goals, including:

• Rescinding the Greenhouse Gas Rule: The order announces an upcoming process to rescind previous rules calling on states to measure and establish declining targets for carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions on federal highways.
• User-Pay Models: The order prioritizes projects using user-pay models (e.g., toll roads) and directs funding to opportunity zones.
• Environmental Justice: The order requires DOT to evaluate environmental impacts like noise and pollution, rejecting the current "social cost of carbon" methodology. It directs DOT to reassess greenhouse gas emissions using earlier federal guidelines.
• Marriage and Family Policies: The order emphasizes funding for communities with higher-than-average marriage and birth rates, particularly for projects like the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program. It also encourages policies that improve transportation access for families with young children to support economic stability.
• Other Requirements: The order prohibits vaccine and mask mandates for DOT funding recipients and requires local compliance with federal immigration enforcement. It reinforces that DOT projects must serve broad federal interests, not local political goals.

According to the U.S. Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990–2022, the transportation sector is one of the largest contributors to anthropogenic U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Landscape architects are particularly skilled at planning and designing multimodal projects that provide cost-effective transportation options for people and also help reduce carbon emissions. ASLA will inform members when the greenhouse gas rulemaking is announced so they may provide comments.

Read the full memo HERE.