Our Transit Investments Are a Cost-of-Living Relief Valve
By Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) | 5/19/2025
REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT)
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
The cost of everyday essentials—groceries, childcare, gasoline—is stretching working families and the middle class thin.
Just about any traveler will tell you traffic in their community is getting worse, while gasoline, insurance, and vehicle prices continue to climb, making daily commutes, school drop-offs and pickups, and essential errands even more of a costly headache.
But for those who turn to public transit for some or all of their transportation needs, there is a different story to be told—as long as we do not retreat from recent progress.
According to AAA, the average cost of owning a car is more than $12,000 annually. For millions of hard-working Americans, public transit is a cost-of-living relief valve that allows them to keep more of their hard-earned money to use for other essentials.
But for public transit to become a more viable and appealing option for the millions of -Americans who almost exclusively drive, we have to make capital investments to ensure our transit networks provide safe and efficient service that meets the needs of our communities.
Networks that do not serve enough neighborhoods, with enough frequency, or which do not operate safely, affordably, and efficiently, are not able to adequately play the role our cities and communities need to be more affordable and better connected.
The good news: we have already made historic investments to do just that.
In 2021, Congress passed, and President Biden signed, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) or “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” which is providing more than $200 billion in investments toward public transit and our regional and national rail systems.
Bringing projects funded by IIJA to fruition creates jobs in the short and long term—but critically, these projects will help local and regional economies flourish by connecting people with the jobs, schools, businesses, and amenities they need, at a fraction of the cost of being dependent on a personal vehicle for daily activities.
But the backlog of capital improvements on subways and railways cannot be transformed with those resources alone. The IIJA was never intended to replace the necessary investments we provide through annual appropriations bills.
The bad news: these investments, and many of our federal transportation programs, are limited and at risk.
His first day in office, President Trump ordered IIJA funding frozen, even for projects already underway. This did nothing to address the still-climbing cost of living, but it did create enormous uncertainty and doubt for the state and local authorities counting on this funding to bring their community’s transit systems into the 21st Century.
The President has no authority to unilaterally impound funding appropriated by Congress. The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to appropriate funds—the power of the purse.
Recently, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to release already awarded IIJA funds, a small but important victory as we continue to fight for the law be followed.
Unfortunately, transit programs—whether funded in IIJA or in annual appropriations bills—are at risk of being defunded or ended altogether.
President Trump is expecting governors and mayors to make impossible decisions on how to prioritize labor and local resources against the laundry list of must-do projects that span transportation modes and increase safety. If we neglect our public-use infrastructure, it will only get more expensive to address in the future and will become more -dangerous for all Americans.
As we all know, transit is a critical component of our infrastructure. I take Amtrak between New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, DC throughout the year—I know the value of well-funded transit options firsthand. Transit reduces vehicle traffic, carbon emissions, and critically, the cost of transportation for American families.
In recent years and on a bipartisan basis, we put pen to paper and made investments through our annual appropriations bills and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that will help improve connectivity within and among our communities, and that will help drive down the cost of living.
We must continue to build on these investments, and we must do everything we can to ensure that these programs are protected from a shortsighted cost- and service-cutting campaign to hand tax breaks to those who would rather eliminate a transit system than take one to work.