USDOT Grant Program Will Prioritize ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Equity’ - Streetsblog
The U.S. Department of Transportation is re-branding one of its largest discretionary grant programs in order to reward regional and local governments who put “equity” and “sustainability” first in their transportation projects. But some advocates are holding their applause until they see how the department defines those critical terms.
The department announced yesterday that it will rename a controversial Trump-era program as the “Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE)” program, and will for the first time actively “prioritize projects that can demonstrate improvements to racial equity,” as well as those that mitigate the effects of climate change and create good-paying jobs, which were selection criteria in earlier incarnations of the program.
