U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Maryland Democrat, said he feared Duffy’s directives would harm some grants already announced — including $85 million awarded to Baltimore in the final weeks of the Biden administration to transform a blighted stretch of U.S. 40 known as the “highway to nowhere.”

Places with higher marriage and birth rates should get preference for federal transportation grants and initiatives, according to a set of US Department of Transportation memos. The policies, released one day after Sean Duffy was sworn in as Department of Transportation head,

Conservatives like Elon Musk and JD Vance have fixated on America’s declining birthrate, but it's unclear how directing more transportation funding to areas with higher birth and marriage rates would reverse the trend.