A newly surfaced memo from President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is raising eyebrows after instructing staff to prioritize funding for communities with higher-than-average marriage and birth rates.
The memo, obtained by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein and widely circulated on social media Thursday, came with the subject line: “Ensuring reliance upon sound economic analysis in Department of Transportation policies, programs, and activities.”
The directive aims to “update and reset” the principles governing the agency, mandating that all funding decisions “bolster the American economy and benefit the American people.” This includes requiring “rigorous economic analysis and positive cost-benefit calculations” for federal grants, loans, and contracts.
However, one section of the memo drew immediate scrutiny: “To a practical, relevant, appropriate, and legal extent, staffers are directed to give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.”
Additionally, the memo bans recipients of Transportation Department funding from imposing vaccine or mask mandates, further aligning with long-standing right-wing opposition to pandemic-era public health measures.
The policy shift follows a growing fixation among Trump-aligned conservatives on declining birth rates. Figures like tech billionaire Elon Musk, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other MAGA allies have framed the issue as a national crisis, arguing that increasing birth rates is critical to maintaining U.S. economic and cultural dominance.
The memo sparked immediate backlash and ridicule online. “In a totally normal and not-alarming memo, Trump’s new transportation secretary directs staff to give preferential funding to ‘communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,'” quipped author and activist Jessica Valenti on X.
Historian and professor Aaron Astor joked, “So is this how Texas finally gets High-Speed Rail?” referencing the state’s long-stalled infrastructure projects. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump conservative group, mocked the move by likening it to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives Republicans have long opposed.
“So this is actually DEI,” the group posted.
Kevin DeGood, senior director of Infrastructure and Housing Policy at the Center for American Progress, summed up the confusion: “USDOT wants to prioritize grants, including CIG, for areas with high marriage and birth rates. Um, what?”