Duffy Defends Trump’s $27 Billion Infrastructure Budget
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WASHINGTON — The country’s top transportation officer defended the White House’s fiscal 2026 funding request for his department during a recent Senate subcommittee hearing.
informed the appropriations panel about funding proposals the Trump administration is pursuing for freight connectivity improvements, highway safety projects and the regulatory streamlining of infrastructure projects.
“The president wants to build. Our budget carefully focuses taxpayer resources on items critical to our most fundamental mission of safety and investing in transportation infrastructure,” Duffy said May 15, referring to the White House’s nearly $27 billion request for the ’s upcoming discretionary budget.
“We do not take additional funds from hardworking taxpayers for granted in an era where government has become too big, too inefficient and too wasteful,” he added. “We have carefully planned for these dollars to fund urgent projects that once built will serve future generations for decades.”
“Congress has a clear opportunity and a responsibility to act,” Hyde-Smith says of the budget proposal. (Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith)
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget intends to provide further details about the fiscal 2026 request this year.
At the hearing, (R-Miss.), chairwoman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, highlighted ongoing needs specific to aviation agencies.
“Congress has a clear opportunity and a responsibility to act,” she said, acknowledging reinforcement of the air traffic workforce. “It is certainly much needed and a step in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, (D-Wash.), the Appropriations panel’s ranking member, as well as senior Democratic colleagues, sought to secure long-term funding for multimodal transit and freight improvement projects. The ranking member took aim at the department’s management of big-picture infrastructure grants.
Murray contends that transportation dollars and projects have been held up by the Trump administration. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
“Since Jan. 20, virtually every dollar and transportation project has been held up at some point, and you are causing a traffic jam,” Murray argued. “From freezing funding for projects, to creating new hurdles by re-evaluating grants that had already been approved, adding red tape by forcing unacceptable political demands on state and local transportation agencies, and outright actually canceling and cutting grants.”
According to OMB, the fiscal 2026 “skinny” budget draft asks Congress to approve an increase of nearly $600 million for supply chain connectivity operations. Funding for a freight grants program would be increased by more than $700 million to assist state agencies. The ’s budget for expanding air traffic control operations also would increase significantly to help mitigate disruptions.
On the House side, funding leaders also reacted along party lines to DOT’s budget request.
Cole says DOT is making strides in ensuring that taxpayer dollars for infrastructure and safety improvements are worthwhile. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)
On May 14, Appropriations leader said, “Secretary Duffy’s team at DOT has already made great efforts to ensure we are directing taxpayer dollars to infrastructure and safety improvements that are worthwhile, taking a fine-toothed comb to thousands of funding decisions made by the previous administration.”
The House transportation funding subcommittee’s top Democrat, of South Carolina, criticized the secretary for being short on specifics regarding aviation improvements.
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“Americans are afraid of flying; controllers are walking off their jobs and aviation businesses are hurting,” he contended. “This plan seems to ignore the realities of the FAA losing more than 2,000 employees this year and assumes project timelines not yet defined by costs, access to materials or feasibility.
“But we need to know that it is backed by action and by an administration that will deploy congressionally directed funding for America’s transportation in an expeditious manner, consistent with congressional intent.”
The congressional appropriations committees have yet to schedule consideration of their fiscal 2026 transportation measures. Federal funding authority expires Oct. 1.
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