The Trump administration claims California has failed to follow its order to cancel 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses held by non-U.S. citizens, so the US Department of Transportation is withholding $160 million from the state. The California Department of Motor Vehicles says it is in full compliance with federal rules, and this is just the latest example of the administration threatening to pull funds from Democratic states for political reasons.
California receives about $5.8 billion in federal highway formula funding. The $160 million hit is less than 3% of the state’s formula funding. Still, it comes on the heels of the administration also pulling $40 million from California after it refused to implement new English-language requirements on truckers that President Donald Trump wants.
So, while this is a relatively small amount of funding, losing it could negatively impact your drive or a Southern California transportation project. These millions could be used to smooth pavement, repave pothole-ridden roads, widen unsafe roads or highways, and fix deficient bridges, for example. In Reason Foundation’s most recent Annual Highway Report, California ranks in the bottom 10 of all states in all four pavement quality categories, which increases car repair costs and reduces safety.
The Trump administration’s politics should have state leaders focused on maximizing other forms of transportation funding. California has over $14 billion in state funds going to highways. Cities and counties raise their own transportation funding through motor fuel and sales taxes. Almost half of California’s 58 counties are self-help counties, meaning they dedicate sales taxes to transportation.
One of California’s biggest transportation problems is failing to get the most from its current spending. The state’s environmental review process increases the time and cost of projects. Rather than protecting the environment, it is too frequently abused by opponents of housing and infrastructure projects to prevent development.
Similarly, some of the state’s politically strong unions have worked to kill innovative delivery mechanisms that could help get more major projects built, blocking design-build projects and public-private partnerships that could lower costs, speed up project timelines, and prioritize needed infrastructure improvements.
Even the Biden administration took the state to task for having one of the worst systems in the country when it comes to properly prioritizing needed transportation projects.
Instead, the state has wasted money on projects like the high-speed rail boondoggle, which is years behind schedule and tens of billions over budget, diverting important infrastructure resources.
Federal officials would say that there is precedent for the federal government to claw back funding when states violate laws or fail to provide the necessary data. States are required to spend certain federal funds on specific programs. For example, National Highway Performance Program funds must be spent on the National Highway System. States are required to enforce certain highway-related laws. In the 1980’s, when the country operated under a 55 miles per hour national speed limit, for example, states were mandated to enforce the speed limit and document that enforcement to the feds as part of the highway funding.
However, there is a difference between clawing back funds for misuse and clawing back funds to punish political opponents. In this case, the Trump administration is targeting certain states, including California.
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California’s infrastructure funding needs to be less politicized, not more. Transportation funding should be targeted at the projects that will most effectively modernize and repair roads, highways and bridges. Those projects should be prioritized based on their cost-effectiveness and the mobility improvements they can deliver to Californians, not tied to unrelated political goals and policies.
Baruch Feigenbaum is senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, where he leads the Annual Highway Report.
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