Washington, D.C. (November 17) — In response to reports from Politico that the Trump administration is proposing to eliminate federal transit funding and the flexibility states have to determine how to spend their own formula dollars, Steve Davis, Director of Transportation for America, offered this statement:
“This short-sighted proposal will annihilate state and local transportation budgets, strand millions of Americans who depend on transit every day in red and blue states alike, produce chaos and increase congestion, seize control from states, and utterly fail to actually solve our most pressing long-term transportation funding issues. The highway formula program alone spends $20 billion more than what the gas tax brings in every year—stealing transit funds won’t change that. Eliminating federal transit funding would cut the transportation options millions depend on and leave families paying even more just to get to work, school, or anywhere else they need to be. This unserious idea should be dead on arrival in Congress, as was a similar proposal in 2012 that was booed out of the room.
The FHWA proposal says that “highway funds should be spent on highway projects,” but gas tax dollars haven’t been exclusively “highway” funds since 1982, when the federal gas tax was raised from 4 to 9 cents and 20 percent of all gas tax funds were permanently devoted to transit. This historic practice—enshrined in a bipartisan deal approved by President Ronald Reagan—has continued for 43 years with broad support in Congress and amongst stakeholders, including the association representing state departments of transportation (AASHTO).
So who would bear the burden of this change? Everyday Americans of nearly every stripe, in communities of all sizes. Hospital workers who use transit to get to their jobs so they can care for us. Millions of rural and urban households without any access to a car. Millions who depend on transit to get them somewhere vital, in cities and towns small and large. Millions of older Americans who can no longer drive. And millions of others who benefit from the trips and cars that transit removes from the road. This proposal would take away travel options from everyday Americans, erode the significant local and national economic benefits of transit, and instead reward those who want to build more highways, no matter the cost.
Any state or country that wants to compete in the modern world is investing in transit. Even highway-happy Texas provides nearly 230 million transit trips for riders each year and is planning for more urban and rural transit as well as intercity connections. We should be building out transit in this country with the same gusto we built the highway system.
A silver lining is that this kind of insanity from the administration should put a nail in the coffin of the “business-as-usual” bipartisan approach to reauthorization. The federal transportation program has produced terrible results for decades, with unsafe, crumbling roads and unrelenting congestion, all while taking more than $275 billion from taxpayers to do it because Congress keeps spending more than the gas tax brings in. The trust fund is broken and beyond repair, and it’s time to stop propping up a program that’s failing both to pay for itself and deliver on its promises. This proposal piles insult on injury as the administration continues to systematically pull funding from local transportation priorities for things like transit and the safety of people walking and biking.
No one in Congress should be willing to negotiate with partners sitting on their hands as the administration takes a blowtorch to their constitutional power of the purse and to the last bipartisan authorization passed in 2021. We’re encouraged to hear Rep. Rick Larsen, the minority leader on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, call this proposal “harebrained.” But members like Rep. Larsen—who have made it clear that their top priority is passing a largely status quo bipartisan bill—should now be asking themselves: Why spend political capital to help negotiate and pass a bill where my priorities are either going to be targeted today, or eliminated tomorrow?”
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