Photo by city of Austin depicting a proposed cap from Cesar Chavez to Fourth Street.
City staff made the case against panic to City Council’s Mobility Committee during an update on the state of Austin’s pending federal infrastructure grants, which some believe may be threatened by President Donald Trump’s executive orders to freeze all federal grants, during their regular meeting on Feb. 20.
Richard Mendoza, director of the city Department of Transportation and Public Works, and Carrie Rogers, intergovernmental relations officer, gave a joint presentation that broke down grants into two lately crucial categories: executed and pending.
Rogers said that the grants in the former category “may be on stronger footing” because the federal government has signed legally binding agreements to provide the funds. However, the pending grants, which have not formally been “executed” or signed, would be theoretically easier to revoke.
Meanwhile, the legality of the executive orders themselves, and of many others issued by Trump, is being debated in the courts and in the court of public opinion.
The Jan. 27 memorandum of the federal Office of Management and Budget, which attempted to implement a freeze called for in the executive order, was rescinded on Jan. 28 and is now under review by Rhode Island federal District Judge John McConnell, Jr.
“We’ve seen a lot of opining from scholars about whether or not what’s going on is within or outside the rule of law,” Rogers said.
Rogers said the city was currently telling staff to “continue proceeding as they did before” on all federal grant projects “unless someone calls you or you get a notice that says ‘stop order.’”
The three projects in the pending category are the $105 million grant undergirding the planned Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch project, a $32 million grant for a new bridge on Barton Springs Road and a $10 million grant for the city’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program.
Mendoza noted in the presentation that regardless of the federal attitude toward the pending grant awards, discussions about executing them currently can restart only on April 20, after a 90-day review period laid out in Trump’s executive order expires.
“We’ve got another menu of projects that have gone through the agreement-executed phase,” said Mendoza, which he enumerated in a chart during the presentation: $48 million from the EPA for pollution reduction, $22 million toward the city’s Living Streets project to build better pedestrian crossings and a little over $1 million to study and prepare for the I-35 cap-and-stitch project.
Mendoza also said the city has not stopped applying for further federal grants, including two recently posted grant opportunities from the federal Department of Transportation, and clarified that several planned and continuing projects earmarked from the federal budget by local U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar are unaffected by the executive orders, including Wishbone Bridge near Longhorn Dam and expansion of the Bergstrom Spur trail.
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, whose home district covers much of East Austin, raised her concerns with staff over the future of the I-35 cap-and-stitch project, which under current plans would eventually extend between Cesar Chavez and 12th streets at the edge of a historically Black neighborhood.
The pending $105 million is slated to cover costs for construction only between Cesar Chavez and Fourth streets, with further expansions needing further successful grant applications. Harper-Madison stressed the importance of the project to her district and to 12th Street in particular.
“You have a whole city block, the former epicenter of the African American cultural heritage district, that’s sitting there completely dead all day and most of the night. This will change everything, really,” Harper-Madison said of the project.
Responding to Harper-Madison’s question, Mendoza reiterated the city’s commitment to applying for new grants and highlighted the hiring of a full-time grants coordinator. Meanwhile, Rogers struck a downbeat note.
“I too am not an alarmist, but I would not be doing my job if I did not make it very clear that this is a very different time in terms of funding availability for projects,” she said.
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