‘Weaponization of transportation dollars’ drives Gov. DeSantis to push portal bashing federal road funding

Road portal
DeSantis blasted the Biden administration for attempting to 'push an ideological agenda' with federal funds.

Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t holding back when it comes to the Joe Biden administration and what he calls the “weaponization of transportation dollars.”

DeSantis rolled out a portal called Roads are not for Politics that he said spotlighted the “underhanded tactics” the Democratic President uses to “shoehorn” so-called “social justice initiatives” such as diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory into transportation allocations. The Governor blasted the Biden administration for attempting to “push an ideological agenda” with federal funds.

DeSantis reached back a few years to lambaste Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework would address “racism that went into those design choices” of 20th century highways that divided many major cities and destroyed neighborhoods.

“In 2022, Biden’s Secretary of Transportation launched a $1 billion transportation project that he said would combat ‘racist roads.’ And I’m thinking ‘Like, everyone drives our roads. We’re not doing, I don’t know where you’re getting that (we’re) trying to do (that),” DeSantis said, taking another shot at remarks he’d previously condemned for representing the “woke-ification of federal policy.”

Florida’s Governor made the comments Thursday in Auburndale at the SUNTRAX Test Facility & Toll Operations Center.

The portal offers language in the same vein, condemning “Biden’s transportation department has focused on opportunities that impede states’ rights, advance a social agenda, and politicize the nation’s transportation infrastructure … under the veil of euphemisms like justice and equity.”

In Auburndale, Florida’s own Transportation Secretary also rapped the Biden administration’s funding policy.

“These damaging policies are threaded throughout all of the Biden administration’s initiatives. They would rather invest in their failed social and climate policies than in our country’s road and bridge infrastructure,” claimed Jared Perdue.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


12 comments

  • Jimbeau

    June 27, 2024 at 1:03 pm

    Working part-time, I earn more than $13,000 per month. I kept hearing how much money people could make online, so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true, and it completely altered my life… This is what I do; you can learn more about it by visiting the website listed below.
     
    Begin here>>>>>>>>> Payathome9.Com

    • Gabriel

      June 28, 2024 at 7:19 am

      Working part-time, I earn more than $13,000 per month. I kept hearing how much money people could make online, so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true, and it completely altered my life… This is what I do; you can learn more about it by visiting the website listed below.

      Begin here>>>>>>>>> Join.Payathome9.Com

  • Rog in Miami

    June 27, 2024 at 2:14 pm

    It is quite frustrating and down-right ridiculous that a governor of the fourth-largest state in the U.S.–a state with massive problems and issues–finds the time to invest in absolutely ridiculous feats like the one described in the article.
    :
    Gov. DeSantis, we do not have time for this. We need sound policies that are going to improve the material conditions of Floridians. We are growing tired of you using your power and platform as governor to attack the Biden administration’s policy initiatives. It is getting tired and childish. Please, grow up!

    • Cheesy Floridian

      June 28, 2024 at 2:49 pm

      Because he is not listening to the people who live here. He thinks he knows best and is the smartest dude in the room. Sad because he is not

  • Michael K

    June 27, 2024 at 2:28 pm

    I wish our governor would wake up and realize how stupid he sounds, calling everything he does not like “woke” just to gin up more anger.

    Look at most cities and it’s easy to see where African American neighborhoods were destroyed to build new highways. If he’s ever actually in Tallahassee, he could look down the street from the Capital to see how the Smokey Hollow neighborhood was obliterated to build a highway.

    Most leaders learn from past mistakes. Not governor know-it-all. Some historian. More like an hysterian.

  • Church And Violence In Florida

    June 27, 2024 at 5:06 pm

    A father and his son, both pastors at a Melbourne church, and an Indian Harbour Beach repairman were found guilty by a federal jury in connection with their roles in the failed Jan. 6 insurrection.

    The convictions of James Varnell Cusick Jr. and his son Casey Cusick — leaders of the Melbourne-based Global Outreach Ministries Church — and David John Lesperance came Friday at the end of a five-day jury trial before District of Columbia Circuit Judge John D. Bates.

    Suspect James Varnell Cusick Jr., a Brevard County pastor, appears in this photo, taken from charging documents against him for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
    The jury found the three men guilty of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or on grounds without lawful authority; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, court records show.

  • Stephen C. King

    June 28, 2024 at 7:13 am

    Working part-time, I earn more than $13,000 per month. I kept hearing how much money people could make online, so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true, and it completely altered my life… This is what I do; you can learn more about it by visiting the website listed below.

    Begin here>>>>>>>>>

  • This article is a lie

    June 28, 2024 at 10:42 am

    This whole article is fake news.the state is using federal carbon money to build sidewalks.send it back these are our taxpayers money and you do not provide traffic improvements like they supposed to be use for. Liars liars liars

    • Don't shoot the messenger

      June 28, 2024 at 11:12 am

      Who are you talking about? The article just reports what the Governor said, and you can agree with it or not. Everyone in Florida knows D is the king of weaponizing things but at the same time throws a hissy if the shoe is on the other foot and wants federal dollars with no accountability or strings attached. Don’t shoot the messenger.

      • Cheesy Floridian

        June 28, 2024 at 4:15 pm

        Very well said

      • MH/Duuuval

        June 28, 2024 at 5:47 pm

        Bandolini’s Law: It is easier to throw out BS than to fact check BS. Moreso when your base is low information.

  • MH/Duuuval

    June 29, 2024 at 9:21 pm

    Dee and the other MAGAs won’t admit that the initial interstate highway project had disparate effects on minority and poorer communities. (Sure, like money and access don’t affect where roads and bridges go!)

    I heard a veteran white Duval politician say in public that the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was what killed Black neighborhoods in Jax. Yet, the local expressway authority was blowing up Black neighborhoods BEFORE Ike signed the Interstate legislation in 1956.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704