The administration of President Donald J. Trump has informed the Connecticut Department of Transportation it would, “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” link transportation funding to policies on masks, vaccines, tolls and immigration enforcement.
The four-page undated memo by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy states the administration “shall prioritize projects and goals” that, among other things, prohibit recipients “from imposing vaccine and mask mandates” and require “local compliance or cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.”
It also would “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” and places that “utilize user-pay models,” which seemingly would include the congestion pricing in Manhattan that Trump has denounced and highway tolls that Gov. Ned Lamont proposed without success.
Lamont said Thursday that DOT was one of at least three state agencies getting directives establishing new ill-defined conditions for federal funding that arrived after a chaotic 48 hours of vague and ultimately conflicting advise regarding a pause in a broad range of federal funding.
The Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday rescinded a memo that indicated federal funding to state and local governments and nonprofits would at least temporarily be frozen at 5 p.m. Tuesday. A federal judge also issued a temporary injunction blocking the freeze.
“It’s a confusing mess. We thought we had clarity yesterday. We thought OMB had pulled back their dictate. We thought the courts had said that we’re going to put a pause on this at least through next week,” Lamont said. “Now we’re finding that each and every one of the departments are coming out with their own special set of restrictions and rules that could harm us.”
The memo by Duffy, a former congressman and Fox co-host, raised as many questions as it provided guidance. For example, it did not define what degree of compliance or cooperation would be required.
“I’m not the most hyperbolic of people, but you got to be clear. You’ve got to be consistent. And this has been chaos the last 72 hours,” Lamont said.
Connecticut has a state law, the Trust Act, that requires federal immigration agents to obtain a judicial warrant for a detainer to be honored. Lamont said he does not see that as failing to cooperate with Trump’s stated goal of focusing on the deportation of immigrants who lack legal status and have committed crimes.
Lamont has been waiting for a firm direction on the Dreamers, the immigrants brought to the U.S. as young children and know no other country as home. Some have reached college age and beyond.
“The question is, what do you do with the Dreamers? What do you do with those folks who have been in this country for 18 years? They’re a junior at high school? Do we work with them?” Lamont said. “We don’t ask people’s immigration status. Our teachers are teaching. If ICE wants to go after them, that’s not our business.”
In some ways, Duffy’s memo was a statement of principles: It “updates and resets the principles and standards underpinning” DOT’s policies to “mandate reliance on rigorous economic analysis and positive cost-benefit calculations” to ensure its state contracts “bolster the American economy and benefit the American people.”
The memo made clear that previous requirements by the Biden administration that projects also be assessed for their “social cost of carbon” and impact on climate change can be ignored.
Such calculations were “marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation,” Duffy wrote.
Lamont said the state Department of Public Health was told it would lose funding for anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Not a big surprise there,” Lamont said.
But linking bridge, highway and rail funding to birth rates and immigration was confusing, he said. He declined to say if he thought linking immigration enforcement to highway spending was coercive.
“I don’t need to jump to conclusions, because it could be different tomorrow. Let’s settle down and see what we should sort out,” Lamont said.
Lamont was amused, however, by the Republican administration pushing tolls and other user fees. The Democratic governor failed to win approval for highway tolls in 2019, and the highway-use tax he instead imposed on trucks is vehemently opposed by Republican lawmakers. They have filed more than a dozen bills that would repeal it.
The push for higher marriage and birth rates, a long-time goal of Trump’s adviser, Elon Musk, was similarly unexpected, Lamont said. At one Trump rally, Musk urged Americans to have at least three children, saying falling birth rates are a threat to developed countries. Musk has fathered 12 children.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both Connecticut’s fertility rate and marriage rate were below the national average in 2022.