Trump to use Biden’s bike lanes fund to fix real infrastructure problems

The Department of Transportation announced this week that it will award $1.73 billion in grants through the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program, with the overwhelming majority dedicated to traditional infrastructure projects affecting actual US citizens, after years of neglect and misuse of the program by the Biden administration. According to the department, roughly 77% of the funding, or about $1.3 billion, will go toward repairing roads and bridges along major transportation corridors, while another 7% will be invested in strengthening America's ports and maritime infrastructure.

By comparison, under the Biden administration, roughly 20% of comparable grant funding went toward pedestrian and bicycle projects, while only about 2% supported maritime infrastructure. Notably, none of this year's BUILD grants will fund bike lane projects, according to the department. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the administration is returning the program to its original mission. "America is fortunate to have a builder in the White House who knows America is only as great as our infrastructure," Duffy told The Daily Wire. "The impact of these dollars will be felt in communities nationwide for years to come," he added.

The move also reverses several policies implemented under former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. During the Biden administration, the BUILD program was renamed Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) and was explicitly directed to prioritize exhausting projects addressing climate change and racial equity. In 2021, Buttigieg announced the program would focus on advancing "equity" while combating climate change.

Grant guidance issued in 2023 instructed applicants to consider how projects would:

• Address climate change.
• Ensure racial equity.
• Remove barriers to opportunity.

That same year, Buttigieg reestablished the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, tasked with helping institutionalize equity throughout the department's policies, regulations, and programs. Upon taking office, Duffy ordered department officials to rescind transportation policies centered on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and climate initiatives, aligning the department with President Trump's executive orders eliminating DEI programs across the federal government.