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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is slamming the Biden administration, especially former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for leaving behind an “unprecedented backlog” of critical infrastructure safety improvements across the country.
A spokesperson for Buttigieg, who is a rumored 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, dismissed the DOT’s criticisms as “nonsense.”
This week, Duffy announced that his department is obligating four grants, totaling $42 million, to improve safety on Florida’s Brightline high speed railway, which runs from Miami to Orlando. According to the department, the grants were announced and touted under Buttigieg’s leadership, but the Biden administration never actually delivered on obligating those funds.
The DOT said the Trump administration inherited a backlog of over 3,200 grants that were announced but never obligated by Buttigieg-Biden. The department said that this has “delayed critical investments in communities across the country.”
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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (left), former President Joe Biden (center), and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (right). (Matt Freed/AP Photo; Evan Vucci/AP Photo; and Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
In Florida, the oldest grant now being obligated by the Trump administration was first announced three years ago in 2022. The department said that “after much fanfare, their administration failed to do any of the work to actually process and deliver these funds to Brightline or project sponsors in Florida.”
DOT said these unfulfilled grants were to help install safety fencing, grade crossing upgrades and a trespassing alert system. The grants included $24.9 million for a trespassing and intrusion mitigation project, $15.4 million for a Broward County sealed corridor project, $1.6 million for a trespassing identification and classification system and a $150,000 grant for Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to support overtime costs for enforcement of pedestrian trespassing at hot spots.
“Under Secretary Duffy’s direction, the Department of Transportation is working diligently to accelerate the distribution of these long-overdue funds and address core infrastructure projects,” said DOT.
In the statement, Duffy called the unfulfilled safety grants “the latest consequence of the unprecedented Biden-Buttigieg backlog.”
One of the defining moments of Buttigieg’s tenure as transportation secretary involved a major train wreck that released toxic materials in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023. While Buttigieg was criticized for his handling of the crisis, he placed the blame on the Trump administration for reversing a rail regulation because of a law passed by Congress in 2015.
“Their failure to execute on these rail grants – some of which stretch back years — put Brightline’s three million annual passengers and Florida communities in unnecessary danger,” said Duffy. “Under President Trump’s leadership, America is building again. We are delivering critical resources in record time to enhance safety on our railways, roads, and bridges.”
A drone photo shows portions of the Norfolk Southern freight train the day after it derailed on Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)
In response, Chris Meagher, a spokesman for Buttigieg, dismissed the DOT’s criticisms as “more of the same nonsense we’ve heard from them in the past.”
“We invested in more projects than any administration in the past, and more than 22,000 projects were completed during Pete’s time in office,” Meagher told Fox News Digital.
He said that during Buttigieg’s tenure, the DOT announced more than $390 billion of funding for more than 78,000 projects, more than 22,000 of which were completed, including 445 rail projects, over 200,000 miles of roadway repairs and improvements, over 12,300 projects to build, repair and modernize bridges, and other projects.
He noted that “some of those projects take time to get done right.”
“As with any change in Administration, it then becomes the job of the incoming Administration to finish the job, which is nothing new,” said Meagher. “What is new is that the current officeholder complains about it instead of just getting the job done.”
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Pete Buttigieg, then US transportation secretary, speaks during a news conference near the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, US, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for the Trump DOT, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital that while Buttigieg and Biden “talked a big game,” their backlog “speaks volumes.”
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“They didn’t do the hard work to actually get critical infrastructure dollars out the door. Instead, they spent their time wasting billions on DEI programs and worrying about whether the term cockpit was offensive,” said the spokesperson.
“The contrast here couldn’t be more clear,” the spokesperson went on. “In less than a year, Secretary Duffy has moved quickly to get clear the backlog and invest in real infrastructure projects like these rail grants. Brightline riders and Florida communities will be safer because of it.”