Dive Brief:
- U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said yesterday that the U.S. Department of Transportation will award $258 million to 25 transportation projects in his state. The grants come through three programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, President Joe Biden’s signature 2021 law.
- The announcement came just weeks after leaders from the California Latino Legislative Caucus sent a letter to Padilla asking the senator to support additional funding for public transit. The letter asked Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to fund light rail lines in the Los Angeles area, LA-region Metrolink commuter rail and Amtrak, according to news reports.
- California transit advocates fear President-elect Donald Trump will cut off transit funding to the state. “The only shot we have is to get it through Buttigieg, and get the money out the door,” Alan Clayton, an expert who has supported Latino candidates, told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Dive Insight:
The grants that Padilla announced include funds for a Complete Streets project in Los Angeles, an updated train control system for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit rail line and reconstruction of a highway interchange in Arcata, California, with two roundabouts and better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Padilla, U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and three U.S. representatives from California also asked the transportation secretary in a Dec. 20, 2024, letter to support continued funding for the California high-speed rail project. The lawmakers noted that of the approximately $28.8 billion already funded for the project, which is under construction in the state’s Central Valley, 76% or $22 billion, came from state funds and $6.8 billion from federal coffers.
But observers believe that federal priorities will shift under the incoming Trump administration, which will be accompanied by Republican party control of the Senate and House of Representatives. “The Trump administration will have a very different set of priorities than the Biden administration did, focusing on roads and rural areas rather than transit, bikes and pedestrians,” said Yonah Freemark, research director of the Land Use Lab at Urban Institute, in a Nov. 7 interview.
The White House has substantial influence on where transportation grants go, an October Urban Institute report found.
