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That message couldn’t be clearer: the days of forcing local governments and contractors to jump through ideological hoops are over.
Biden’s Pricey “Woke” Rules
During Biden’s presidency, federal transportation dollars came tied to mandates demanding extensive reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprints, and detailed diversity paperwork. Meanwhile, the price of basic infrastructure projects ballooned.
Road construction costs soared nearly 70% under Biden’s watch, partly because of the burdensome red tape. Officials were busy tallying emissions data or drafting DEI statements rather than pouring concrete.
Worse, Biden’s Transportation Department rolled out these requirements without Congressional approval.
They were, as critics put it, rules “pulled out of thin air.” Instead of focusing on improving traffic flow or maintaining highways, bureaucrats obsessed over carbon metrics and “discriminatory DEI language.” Some project managers spent more time filling out paperwork than managing construction sites.
Duffy’s “Woke Rescission” Memo
Duffy isn’t tiptoeing around the problem. He’s wielding a sledgehammer.
He signed a decisive directive dubbed the “Woke Rescission” Memorandum, which orders the elimination of Biden-era initiatives connected to climate change activism, racial and gender quotas, and broader DEI efforts.
The memo is crystal clear: any policy imposed by Biden’s Department of Transportation that lacks a legal basis is now “null and void.”
Or, in Duffy’s words, they’re headed “in the trash where they belong.”
From DA’s Office to Swamp Buster
Duffy, who previously served as a Wisconsin congressman and a tough-as-nails district attorney, is bringing his prosecutorial grit to federal policy. As Ashland County’s top prosecutor, he tried more than 100 cases and secured convictions in over 90% of them.
Now, he’s applying the same no-nonsense approach to draining the swamp at the Transportation Department.
Clearing the Biden-Buttigieg Backlog
Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg left a staggering backlog of unfunded projects in their wake. Many grants were announced with fanfare but never saw the money materialize. Communities were left waiting for critical infrastructure upgrades.
Duffy stepped in to cut through the chaos. Under his leadership, the department has been fast-tracking approvals for grants that had languished under Biden’s red tape.
Projects that once seemed destined for permanent limbo are finally moving forward:
- $21 million is headed for rail safety improvements north of Ann Arbor, Michigan — a project stuck in limbo since June 2022.
- A $110 million bridge connecting North Carolina’s mainland to the Outer Banks, first announced in January 2023, finally secured the green light.
- The Port of Baltimore will receive $47 million promised back in December 2023.
These are just a few examples of the infrastructure bottlenecks that Duffy is breaking open.
Taxpayers Save Millions
According to Duffy, scrapping DEI mandates isn’t just ideological—it’s fiscal sanity. He argues the Biden-era rules didn’t simply waste money but imposed unfair burdens on communities forced to navigate layers of diversity reporting and identity-based compliance.
“America is building again,” Duffy stated.
He also declared that transportation funding is now focused on “safety, efficiency, economic prosperity, and regulatory reform,” rather than “political ideologies.”
“American commuters don’t want to pay for deranged, leftist DEI mandates that don’t improve the efficiency of their daily commutes,” Duffy explained. “They care about getting home safely and quickly to the families they are working so hard to provide for.”
In another decisive statement, he said:
“Recipients of DOT Federal financial assistance are hereby released of their obligations to comply with these policies and requirements effective immediately.”
A Return to Common Sense
For four years, critics say Biden’s transportation policy seemed less about building roads and more about engineering social change. Duffy’s reforms slam the brakes on that experiment.
Instead of fixating on identity checklists, the new priority is simple: build things that work.
And that, according to conservatives cheering on Duffy’s efforts, is how you “put America first.”
The message from Sean Duffy’s Transportation Department is clear: woke mandates are out, and common-sense infrastructure is back in.
