Sean Duffy says the grants pushed ‘radical DEI and green agenda’ instead of focusing on taxpayers’ transport needs.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday announced the termination of seven federally funded university research grants totaling $54 million, saying the programs are wasteful and ideologically divisive projects that fall outside the scope of the Department of Transportation’s core mission.
“The previous administration turned the Department of Transportation into the Department of Woke,” Duffy said in a May 2 statement. “I’ve focused the Department on what matters; safety, making travel great again, and building big, beautiful infrastructure projects.”
The grants supported research projects that Duffy said were used to advance a “radical DEI and green agenda” that wasted taxpayer resources and were not aligned with the transportation priorities of Americans.
The seven canceled grants had been awarded to research centers at the University of California–Davis, City College of New York, University of Southern California, New York University, San Jose State University, University of New Orleans, and Johns Hopkins University.
He cited specific examples of what he called ideological misuse of funds, including a $12 million grant to UC Davis for research on “accelerating equitable decarbonization,” a $9 million grant to the City College of New York for studying “equitable transportation for the disadvantaged workforce,” and a $6 million grant to San Jose State University that examined infrastructure and safety issues facing women and gender non-conforming individuals.
“We’re taking out all the racist DEI and green new scam and injecting a dose of reality back into our higher education system,” Duffy said in a video statement.
The Epoch Times has contacted all seven universities named by the Department of Transportation for comment. As of publication, the University of California–Davis responded with a substantive reply, while San Jose State University declined to comment.
A spokesperson for UC Davis said in an emailed statement that the university had received dozens of notices from federal agencies related to specific grants or projects since Trump assumed office, with affected grants spanning areas including “cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, food production and safety, renewable energy, basic science and a great deal more.”
“The federal notices vary significantly in their intent and need for action,” the statement continued. “In each case, the Office of Research is working directly with the principal investigator and campus leadership to determine the appropriate course of action. In the case of research terminations, this may include filing an appeal directly with the agency, litigating matters in court, and negotiating a financial settlement prior to winding down the research.”
The decision follows President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across federally supported education programs, and to revoke Biden-era guidance on gender ideology in public education.
On Jan. 21, Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which bars federal funding to any educational institution that mandates DEI compliance or contracts with vendors that do.
Under the order, the Department of Education—along with the attorney general and the Office of Management and Budget—has been tasked with identifying the most “egregious and discriminatory practitioners” among colleges and K–12 schools. It also directs the Department of Education to open civil rights investigations into as many as nine universities with endowments over $1 billion.
A separate executive order signed on day one of his administration rescinded all prior federal guidance promoting gender ideology in schools and federal programs. Titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” Trump’s order revoked materials issued by the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services that had supported the recognition of transgender identities in school policies.
It also directed all federal agencies to remove references to gender identity from internal policies and ensure that sex-based protections are defined solely on the basis of biological sex.