| As House Chair of the Transportation Committee my work generally falls into two primary categories: safety and infrastructure.
Both of these priorities rely heavily on funding, with much of it coming from the federal government.
Yesterday, a four-page memo, signed by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was delivered to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
This memo applies to DOT and DOT-supported grants, loans and contracts, including existing agreements. Unsurprisingly, the text of this memo stated that the Trump administration will make funding contingent on compliance with both immigration enforcement and public health policy, including vaccine and mask mandates.
Each of these criteria have nothing to do with transportation safety or infrastructure, and their use as qualifiers is disturbing, to say the least.
Perhaps even more alarming is that it also gives funding preference "to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average." The chilling implication here that having more babies will reward our state with more dollars has understandably gotten many residents quite worried.
This morning, I, along with many of my legislative colleagues and municipal leaders from across the 4th Congressional District, met with Congressman Himes to try to sort through our rights and the economic impact of this memo, along with the funding freeze implemented and promptly rescinded earlier this week.
At this time, there are many more questions than answers regarding what we can do to combat this impending denial of critical funding to our state. But as we learn more, I will share it here. |
