Trump Administration Unveils Plan To Tie High Birth And Marriage Rates To Transit Funding

Communities with high birth and marriage rates could soon gain an advantage in securing federal transit money — a long-sought goal of the Trump administration but one that a top Democratic appropriator calls “bizarre and dystopian.”

The Federal Transit Administration wants to revamp a multibillion-dollar program that helps state and local authorities fund infrastructure projects such as rail improvements and new bus lanes. Public feedback on the administration’s plan, which was rolled out Oct. 1, is being accepted through mid-November.

The idea would fulfill a priority of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to steer grant money to parts of the country with birth and marriage rates higher than the national average, a policy initiative he unveiled shortly after being sworn into office early last year.

Under the transit proposal, the FTA would cover up to 10 percentage points more of a project’s costs if an area’s average birth and marriage rates meet, exceed or are just below nationwide thresholds.

“Moving forward, the federal government is focusing on smart, affordable projects with high ridership. If you want federal funding, your project needs to align with where communities and families are actually growing,” the Transportation Department said in a statement.

But the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee had harsh words for the proposal.

“Tying funding for transit projects to marriage rates and how many babies a woman has is the sort of bizarre and dystopian idea you’d expect in a TV show, not actual policy put forth by the U.S. government — yet here we are,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state said in a statement.

She said President Donald Trump “wants to weaponize federal grants to wage his backward culture wars and punish Democrats.”

Spokespeople for Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A former FTA administrator during the Obama administration also was critical.

“It’s throwing a bone to these ideologues who want to incentivize child rearing and marriage,” said Peter Rogoff, who previously led Sound Transit in the Seattle area and is now a transportation consultant. “But it’s ludicrous on its face to try to achieve that goal through an infrastructure program.

“Does anyone really believe that there are couples out there saying, ‘Hey, sweetheart, you and I should get married and raise a passel of kids because a dozen years from now, maybe they’ll build light rail out to our neighborhood?’” he asked.

Duffy, who has nine children, has urged young people to tie the knot and “have lots of kids.” He’s one of several Cabinet members with big families, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, DHS head Markwayne Mullin and Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The national fertility rate sank to a record low in 2025 — 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Trump has said he will be known as the “fertilization president.”

The FTA grant program hinges on a lengthy approval process that can take years for applicants to navigate, with money becoming available after a binding grant agreement is executed.

Before reaching the final step, the FTA determines how much of a project’s total cost it will cover. The share of federal funding is capped at 60 percent for new, large transit infrastructure and 80 percent for boosting the capacity of existing systems.

For those two types of projects, the administration now wants to calculate the amount it will fund using a formula that, in part, would be based on a transit corridor’s average birth and marriage rates. When those rates are at or above national benchmarks, or just below them, the federal share would be increased — rising by up to 10 percentage points.

Under Duffy, DOT has launched a “Make Travel Family Friendly Again” campaign, encouraging airports to create play areas and add nursing rooms at terminals. He also has sought to inspire families to travel around the country via his “The Great American Road Trip” video series.

The birth and marriage rates proposal has yet to be finalized, and it’s unknown when it will be. It also wasn’t immediately clear which exact communities would benefit from the idea.

The plan is part of a wider effort by the FTA to rewrite its guidance for federal Capital Investment Grants, or CIG. The public can weigh in through Nov. 16.

CIG and a related pilot initiative got $1.7 billion from Congress for fiscal 2026 on top of $1.6 billion in additional funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

Projects that previously won money from the program include the ongoing construction of the Gateway rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey and a pending extension of Chicago’s Red Line train.

Paul Skoutelas, CEO and president of the American Public Transportation Association, said in a statement the organization is reviewing the FTA plan.

Rogoff, the former FTA administrator, said the framework would “clearly disadvantage” projects in areas with lower birth and marriage rates, adding that federal law doesn’t require that this data be relied on when carrying out CIG.

“Obviously, the program is about moving people — not about moving married people or moving parents,” he said.