This article will be updated as additional information becomes available.
On March 12, 2025, POLITICO reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) had issued a memo directing its office to identify and review discretionary grants and cooperative agreements awarded between FY2022 and FY2025 that have not yet been fully obligated. The review targets projects seen as advancing climate action, equity, environmental justice, electric vehicle infrastructure, and bicycle-related infrastructure. If a project includes these components, DOT staff may be instructed to revise scopes or cancel funding.
Reportedly, teams are instructed to remove or replace project elements that conflict with current administration priorities. Projects may be flagged even if only part of the scope touches on equity, green infrastructure, or emissions reduction.
Key Impacts for Railtowns Members:
Any DOT or FRA grant—including CRISI, RAISE, INFRA, SS4A, Reconnecting Communities, or cooperative agreements—may be subject to review if the project is not yet fully obligated and has overlap with out-of-favor project components.
Projects including EV charging infrastructure, climate or emissions reduction goals, equity analysis, bike/ped improvements, or environmental justice components are especially vulnerable.
Projects with phased funding may face review before future tranches are obligated, even if part of the funding has already been committed.
Immediate Actions for Communities:
Assess Grant Obligation Status: Determine whether your grant funding has been fully obligated through executed agreements or contracts. If not, your project is at risk.
Review Project Scope: Identify any components in your grant tied to equity, climate, emissions reduction, green infrastructure, pedestrian or bicycle infrastructure, or EVs.
Document Core Benefits: Ensure your project narrative clearly links infrastructure elements to transportation safety, system efficiency, economic development, and statutory program goals—not only climate or equity framing.
Engage DOT/FRA Contacts: Open communication with your project officer to understand how the new guidance may affect your specific award.
Preserve Records: Retain all documentation of project planning, milestones, and correspondence with DOT or FRA to strengthen your position in the event of cancellation or revision.
Communicate Proactively: Be ready to defend the public value of your project through safety data, economic impact projections, and Trump-aligned framing.
While grants have been rescinded in the past, I can find no evidence of such a broad ideological action that could devastate communities across the entire country.
This type of policy shift also raises deeper concerns about the credibility of the federal government when it comes to honoring its commitments. When funding decisions are reversed after award—based not on merit or compliance, but on shifting political ideology—it undermines the trust communities place in the grantmaking process. Local governments invest substantial time, planning, staff capacity, and public expectations based on federal award notifications. If those commitments can be walked back midstream, the ability of communities to plan, build, and deliver is fundamentally threatened. It sends a chilling signal to mayors, MPOs, DOTs, and their private-sector partners who rely on federal consistency to drive long-term infrastructure strategy.
Historical Grant Cancellation Precedents (For Context):
California High-Speed Rail Grant Cancellation (2019): The Trump administration rescinded a single $929 million grant from California’s High-Speed Rail Authority, citing performance issues. California claimed the move was political. The Biden administration later restored the funds.
State Rejections of Obama-Era Rail Grants (2010–2011): Republican governors in Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio returned awarded federal rail grants, rejecting infrastructure investments aligned with federal policy goals. While the action was broad, it was initiated by the recipients, not the provider.
Trump-Era Grant Rescoping and Delays (2017–2020): DOT shifted discretionary grant priorities to de-emphasize transit, equity, and climate investments. Several projects were informally sidelined or forced to revise scope. Importantly, however, the actions were forward-looking, not retroactive. The TIGER program was rebranded as BUILD, and criteria changes subtly discouraged urban, equity-focused, or climate-centered projects. Awards skewed toward rural road projects and politically aligned geographies, but the approach targeted future funding cycles rather than clawbacks of previously awarded funding.
What’s Different Now:
This review is explicitly ideological and retrospective, targeting projects already awarded.
It spans multiple fiscal years and applies across DOT programs.
Unlike past shifts in grant criteria, this involves potential removal or cancellation of scope elements midstream, threatening project delivery, community partnerships, and public safety goals.
Railtowns.org is actively monitoring developments and working to equip communities with the tools and information to defend and preserve their already-awarded funding.
At the time of the original posting the text of the referenced memo had not been publicly released. Content subject to change as more information becomes available.