From the outset of the second Trump administration, the president and his appointees pledged to slash red tape, reduce the size of federal government, and reorient programs around the administration’s political priorities. At the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), these efforts manifested through the abrupt retraction of IIJA program guidance documents. For over a year, guidance on the use of funds from the Federal-Aid Highway Program and other formula programs disappeared from the FHWA website amid the operating administration’s regulatory review process.

Guidance documents for programs including the Surface Transportation Block Grant and National Highway Performance Program have only been rereleased within the last three months. Revisions have eliminated guidance on “strategic priorities” inserted during the Biden administration that had encouraged state DOTs to prioritize sustainability, pedestrian and cyclist safety, equity, and highway repairs over new construction. Other program guidance documents, including guidance for the Ferry Boat Program, are yet to be restored. Moreover, the FHWA has deviated from standard recordkeeping procedures, omitting superseded Biden administration documents from archival sections of webpages.

The year-long retraction and gradual reemergence of highway program guidance documents appear to cap off a long-standing FHWA saga over the controversial “Building a Better America” memo promulgated by former Acting FHWA Administrator Stephanie Pollack.

Background: “Building a Better America”

Political tensions behind the disappearance of highway funding guidance documents can be traced back to debates over the House’s original 2021 surface transportation reauthorization bill, known as the INVEST in America Act. This legislation proposed strict limits on construction of new highways. State DOTs would have to demonstrate overall progress on meeting highway state of good repair standards and prove a new highway would score above new transit on a cost-benefit analysis before they were allowed to use federal funds to expand highway capacity. This ‘fix it first’ requirement, as well as policies addressing climate, equity, and multimodal safety, attracted significant opposition from Republican members, as well as some state DOTs. While the INVEST in America Act passed the House, it was amended in the Senate to essentially rewrite the bill’s highway title from scratch. Eventually, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed by both houses and signed into law without any of the House’s highway funding requirements.

However, the issue did not end there. In December 2021, Acting FHWA Administrator Stephanie Pollack issued the “Building a Better America” memorandum. The memo directed FHWA staff to encourage state DOTs to prioritize sustainability, flex funds toward transit projects, consider accessibility and equity, provide cyclist and pedestrian safety infrastructure, and follow the ‘fix it first’ model when expending federal highway funds. Republican members of Congress were incensed to learn that Pollack’s memo lifted language from INVEST in America Act provisions. Though the memo could only set out encouraged ‘guidance’ for implementation priorities, Republicans claimed that the FHWA was reviving legislative requirements that had failed to pass through Congress through executive fiat.

After a judgement by the that the FHWA memorandum, though intended as implementation guidance, constituted an executive branch regulatory action, Republican members took steps to put the policy up to a vote through the Congressional Review Act. Rather than engaging in a potentially damaging veto fight, the Biden Administration backed down. In February of 2023, newly confirmed FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt superseded the “Building a Better America” memorandum with a shortened implementation memo that stuck closer to IIJA language, as signed into law. While it voiced support for climate resilience, equity, and highway repair, the rewritten memo put congressional Republicans at ease by making clear that states retained discretion to use apportioned highway funds as they saw fit.

Retracted Documents

While the “Building a Better America” memo was superseded after little more than a year, it left a more lasting impact through the program implementation guidance issued while it was in effect. The memo required that FHWA staff advance administration priorities by “incorporating the principles advanced in this Policy into all guidance documents issued for ‘legacy’ apportioned programs.” FHWA guidance documents on the use of IIJA formula funds were therefore written with lengthy sections encouraging state DOTs to adopt a set of “strategic priorities” when deciding how to spend federal transportation dollars. Because Administrator Bhatt had defused tensions before Congress took any formal action, the FHWA was never forced to revise already-published implementation guidance documents, even though the controversial memo they were written under had been superseded. Thus, “Building a Better America” provisions included in funding guidance documents to state DOTs outlived the memo itself.

However, as President Trump took office for a second term, the days became numbered for progressive transportation policy provisions included within FHWA guidance. Departments began purging federal webpages of references to equity, climate change, and other Biden-era priorities, and appointees started the process of rescinding regulations out of step with the new president’s policy prerogatives. Remnants of “Building a Better America” policy throughout FHWA quickly attracted administration attention.

In March 2025, the FHWA issued a third memorandum to formally rescind both Pollack’s original memo and Bhatt’s memo that superseded it. The new FHWA memo denounced climate, equity, and other policy priorities previously recommended to state DOTs, claiming the Biden administration had “attempted to impermissibly impose misguided policy mandates and other requirements that had no basis in the statute.” Unlike Bhatt’s memo, which left already-written program implementation documents intact, this administration release preceded real administrative action on the IIJA guidance documents published under Pollack.

Between March and April of 2025, the FHWA removed digital access to guidance documents for a number of Federal Aid Highway Program subprograms, among other highway formula funds. FHWA website users would be directed to a 404 ‘Page Not Found’ screen when clicking on hyperlinks ostensibly still connected to program guidance documents. Programs affected included the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, National Highway Performance Program, Ferry Boat Program, Territorial Highway Program, and Puerto Rico Highway Program. Users lost readily available access to guidance documents on these programs for over a year, with no clear indication of the reason for their removal.

Revisions and Releases, One Year Later

The FHWA gradually began to roll out new guidance documents in April of 2026, at which point the original IIJA implementation documents had been missing for approximately one year. These updated documents superseded their Biden-administration predecessors. While the bulk of guidance, focused on outlining basic statutory requirements, was left nearly identical to early versions of the documents, lengthy “strategic priority” sections encouraging use of funds toward Biden-era transportation priorities were removed in their entirety.

Strategic priority subsections removed from the Surface Transportation Block Grant and National Highway Performance Program guidance documents are as follows:

1. Safety: recommendations urging states to adopt Vision Zero plans to eliminate traffic-related fatalities
2. Complete Streets: proposals to incorporate safe crosswalks, bicycle lanes, bus lanes, and public transit stops in road right-of-way
3. Transit Flex: encouragement for DOTs to utilize statutory flexible fund provisions to redirect highway funding towards transit projects
4. Transferability Between FHWA Programs: information on opportunities to transfer certain funding amounts to other highway programs
5. ADA: confirmation of the applicability of Americans with Disabilities Act requirements toward projects and the ability of state DOTs to spend funds on accessible roadway and pedestrian infrastructure
6. Equity: guidance on consulting the public and centering underserved populations in decision-making processes
7. Climate Change and Sustainability: encouragement to consider climate effects and resiliency in investments, including efficient transportation design and electric vehicle charging infrastructure
8. Labor and Workforce: recommendations on identifying opportunities to use highway construction to create good-paying jobs
9. Truck Parking: confirmation of the applicability of funds toward truck parking expansion and safety projects, in line with Jason’s Law

While these strategic priorities were encouraged rather than required by FWHA guidance, they may have provided novel information to state DOTs, particularly regarding the opportunity to use formula funds for applicable safety, accessibility, and sustainability-related projects, as well as the ability to flex funds for transit. These recommendations likely also steered the actions of civil servants responsible for allocating and approving usage of FHWA formula funds. The updated documents brought IIJA program guidance much closer in line with that released for formula programs under previous surface transportation reauthorizations. Guidance documents for FAST Act and Map-21 programs generally focused on explicitly spelling out authorization amounts and program requirements included within statutes, rather than including interpretive recommendations meant to advance administrative priorities.

For some, the updated Trump administration FHWA guidance is likely seen as a more faithful implementation of statute and in line with the delicate bipartisan negotiations behind IIJA. It provides clear explanation of statutory requirements, while affording states the flexibility to implement funding as they see fit. For others, the updated guidance may represent a missed opportunity to advance important policy priorities and fully inform states on the non-traditional program opportunities to which funding can apply.

Beyond policy itself, the abrupt removal of guidance documents for over a year from FHWA webpages represents a significant departure from precedent. Departmental review suspended digital access not only to guidance documents with Biden-era ‘strategic priority’ sections but also to program documents that never contained sustainability or equity provisions. For example, the Territorial Highway Program and Puerto Rico Highway Program documents, both of which were published after the “Building a Better America” was already superseded, was written without inclusion of strategic priority guidance. Despite this, they were still pulled from the FHWA website for approximately one year, only to return with practically no revisions of note. Even as documents have been updated and rereleased, FHWA staff have failed to update archival sections of program webpages to include Biden-era guidance documents that new versions are meant to supersede. This breaks from usual digital public recordkeeping practices.

At the time this article is published, there are still some program guidance documents left outstanding. After over a year, updated guidance for the Ferry Boat Program is still yet to be released.

Note: for purposes of this analysis, webpages were accessed from the FHWA Federal-aid Programs and Special Funding website. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine was used to assess the status of published and retracted documents over time.