With the presidential election less than one month away, we’re taking stock of where the administration of Donald Trump and Mike Pence and a potential Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration stand on issues of great importance to Regional Plan Association.
Because RPA thinks regionally and works across state and city boundaries, we always keep a close eye on federal policy. The coronavirus pandemic has sapped many sources of revenue for states, from property taxes to transit tickets, many are seeking different forms of relief from the federal government. As a result, now more than ever before in recent memory, an action at the federal level will determine what’s possible at the state and local level.
RPA’s main research areas include transportation, housing and neighborhood planning, energy and the environment, and governance. Each year, we identify a set of core campaigns within these research areas around which to focus our advocacy. We examined the candidates’ records and plans on our key 2020 campaigns; congestion pricing and fixing the subways; restoring public housing, decarbonizing the region, reducing segregation and inequality, and building a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
The comparison offered below does not represent the candidates’ full platform on these issues, but is instead a summary of key points.
Implement Congestion Pricing and Fix the Subways
Biden
- Although congestion pricing does not appear in candidate Biden’s infrastructure plan, the plan promises to “revolutionize municipal transit networks” by, among other things, allocating flexible federal investments to help cities and towns improve existing transit and bus lines, which could apply to the MTA.
- New York’s Mayor de Blasio suggested that the election of Joe Biden could break the logjam over environmental reviews that is delaying the congestion pricing program.
Trump
- Under President Trump’s administration, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has not told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) which type of environmental review New York City’s congestion pricing program will require, effectively delaying the start of the program by at least one year.
- In March, 2020, President Trump signed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act which provided $3.9 billion in emergency relief funding to the MTA, which has been starved of revenue since the pandemic temporarily forced riders from trains, buses, and subways in March.
Restore Public Housing
Biden
- According to his infrastructure plan, a President Biden would build more public housing units to address the affordable housing crisis. Biden would increase federal investment in affordable housing for low-income Americans and communities of color, which could include public housing.
- Upgrade four million buildings and weatherize two million homes over four years.
Trump
- Every budget that President Trump has submitted to Congress has proposed to significantly reduce funding for affordable housing programs. In fiscal year 2020, the President proposed eliminating several programs, including funding that ensures public housing agencies have the money to address their most pressing capital needs, like fixing leaking roofs or replacing outdated heating systems.
- The fiscal 2021 budget for the US Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD) as proposed would have eliminated all HUD funding for capital projects in public housing nationwide.
Decarbonize the Region
Biden
- Joe Biden would recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement.
- The Biden infrastructure plan proposes achieving a carbon-free power sector nationwide by 2035.
- The plan includes a commitment to environmental justice and green workforce development, setting a goal that so-called disadvantaged communities receive 40% of overall benefits of spending in the areas of clean energy and energy efficiency deployment; clean transit and transportation; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and development of critical clean water infrastructure.
Trump
- President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, an agreement between more than 180 countries to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
- In July 2020, the Trump administration rolled back key portions of the National Environmental Policy Act, making it easier for developers to neglect the impacts of pollution and climate change when constructing new projects.
- The President has focused on US energy independence. In April 2019, he issued an executive order expediting pipeline permitting and blocking states’ decision-making power on such projects, including the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement gas pipeline, which would run through New Jersey and New York City.
Reduce Segregation and Inequality
Biden
- The Biden campaign has promised it will spur construction of 1.5 million homes and housing units while prioritizing closing the racial wealth gap. The candidate’s plan would increase the level of federal investment in new affordable, accessible housing construction — including homes for low-income Americans, communities of color, veterans, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Depending on where this housing is constructed, it could help reduce segregation across the tri-state region and nationally.
- Biden’s infrastructure plan would “incentivize smart regional planning that connects housing, transit, and jobs, improving quality of life by cutting commute times, reducing the distance between living and leisure areas.”
Trump
- Under the Trump administration, HUD in 2019 put forward a new regulation that makes it more difficult to prove that protected classes are discriminated against in the housing market, which, as RPA described, fails to recognize the historic and current relationship between segregation, inequality, and spatial planning
- This year, HUD rescinded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which was implemented in 2015 under the 1968 Fair Housing Act and required federal agencies to administer any housing-related programs “in a manner affirmatively to further” fair housing.
- In association with his AFFH rollback, President Trump tweeted about preventing the building of low-income housing in suburbs, action which would ostensibly maintain residential segregation.
Build Gateway
Biden
- At RPA Assembly in April 2017, Biden lamented the decision to kill the Access to the Region’s Core project indicating that while the Gateway Program might not be mentioned in the candidate’s infrastructure plan, he favors additional trans-Hudson rail capacity.
- Biden’s infrastructure plan proposes “sparking the second great railroad revolution” by tapping existing federal grant and loan programs at US DOT, and working with Amtrak and private freight rail companies to electrify the rail system, reducing diesel fuel emissions.
Trump
- In June 2020, the Trump administration cleared the long-stalled Portal Bridge bridge project in New Jersey, a key component of the Gateway Program, to advance toward construction and pledged $766.6 million in grant funding for the work.
- Under the Trump administration, US DOT has not approved the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Hudson River Tunnel project, the largest component of the Gateway Program. Over two and a half years have passed since the Department’s self-imposed deadline to issue a Record of Decision on the EIS