WA Senators split vote on Trump’s Transportation Secretary
Sean Duffy sailed through the US Senate nomination process to become the new Transportation Secretary this week. His first acts were to order a rewrite of the Federal fuel economy standards for pickups and SUVs (rolling back climate initiatives is a common theme among Trump's nominees, and Duffy has a history of denying human-caused climate change), execute a series of anti-diversity and anti-trans executive orders, and order that USDOT funds should prioritize places with high marriage and birth rates that obey the Trump administration's deportation squads.
Washington's senators took different tacks on how to respond to Duffy's nomination. Patty Murray was one of only 22 Senators to vote NO on his nomination, writing on Bluesky, I voted NO to confirm Sean Duffy as Secretary of Transportation to register my firm opposition to a lawless administration that is right now illegally ripping away funding that communities and families across America are counting on."
As the ranking member for the Senate Commerce Committee, Maria Cantwell questioned Duffy directly earlier in the nomination process. She pressed him earlier this month on whether he would commit to helping complete [projects already planned and funded] and continue the funding." Duffy answered, That are underway? Yes." She also asked him about whether he would honor commitments made in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I would anticipate honoring those commitments, especially if the law has been followed and the agreements are being met," he said. I think I might get some backlash from this Committee if you're halfway through a project and there's an effort to pull funding."
After she secured a commitment" from Duffy to honor previously-approved Federal funding for transportation projects, Cantwell voted YES on his nomination. That final YES vote this week came as the Trump Administration ordered a pause to all Federal grants, directly undercutting Duffy's promises to Cantwell before he was even confirmed. This was why Murray said she voted NO on Duffy's nomination. Trump rescinded the order after a couple days of chaos, backlash and lawsuits, but the message has been received: Even previously allocated Federal funding is at risk.
The Trump order was rescinded before it became clear what the full impact would have been. For example (and these are not the most important examples, just ones we've covered previously), would the checks keep clearing for SDOT's under-construction E Marginal Way and Rapidride J projects? That money has been allocated for those projects, but Trump seemed to be testing the limits of what secured" Federal funding means (or they are morons, which is also a distinct possibility). The executive branch is not supposed to be able to reverse laws and funding allocations passed by the legislative branch and signed into law. This is one of those vital separations of power that hold a democracy together. But we are in uncharted territory with a lot of this stuff, and many government guardrails against authoritarianism are going to face their first real tests.
Cantwell voting in favor of Trump's pick is not a good look, but there may be merit to the argument that there is more to be gained from having a working relationship with the Transportation Secretary than from a symbolic NO vote on his guaranteed nomination. I won't claim to know which was the better strategy here. The Democrats as a party also don't seem to know which strategy to take, so they are sort of doing both. Or maybe neither.
Seattle Bike Blog obviously has very limited influence or expertise on federal politics. But we do closely follow transportation issues, including the impact of federal transportation funding and policy. The first Trump administration reduced federal funding for Seattle in response to the city declaring itself a sanctuary city for immigrants. Getting less funding than expected from the feds helped blow a hole in the Move Seattle list of promises to levy voters, which passed in 2015 and did not anticipate a Trump presidency run on spite and hatred. One of Duffy's first acts after confirmation was to issue a memo (PDF) calling for grants to bizarrely prioritize communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average," and I'm sure it's just a total coincidence that states that voted for Trump are at the top of the list and states that didn't (including Washington) are at the bottom. The memo also states that USDOT support should require local compliance or cooperation with Federal immigration enforcement and with other goals and objectives specified by the President of the United States or the Secretary." So that's strike two for Washington and especially Seattle.
As the Trump Administration mounts attacks on our immigrant and refugee neighbors, our trans neighbors, our vulnerable trans and gender-questioning youth, and so many more, Seattle Bike Blog wants to make it clear that we expect our local elected leaders to fight as hard as possible to protect our communities. There will be consequences for standing up to Trump, but there are going to be consequences either way. Standing against fascism and protecting our community members are paramount.
Insecure racists, transphobes and fascists can get wrecked.