Congresswoman Simon Leads Colleagues in Demanding the Department of Transportation Stop Effort to Eliminate Civil Rights Regulations at the Agency

OAKLAND, CA - Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) led 12 colleagues in calling for the withdrawal of a Department of Transportation (DOT) final rule that would eliminate regulations that provide essential civil rights protections and ensure organizations that receive federal transportation funding do not unintentionally discriminate against protected groups.

These regulations have been standard procedure since 1964 and require transit agencies to weigh equity across fares, services, facilities, and language access when making policy and operational decisions. These federal protections ensure no person is excluded, denied benefits, or subjected to discrimination under any transportation program or activity receiving federal funds. In addition to the harmful final rule, the DOT also posted their rescissions of Title VI regulations as a Final Rule without allowing for public comment, which violates the Administrative Procedures Actand denies the public their rightful opportunity to provide comment on this critical civil rights protection.

"Ensuring our hard-earned tax dollars are being spent by agencies in accordance with the Civil Rights Act is non-negotiable for me." said Congresswoman Simon. "As a transit dependent person, I know how important it is for agencies receiving federal funds to consider disparate impact on the communities they serve. The most basic point of the federal government is to serve the American people. Here, the Trump Administration has failed on two fronts-rolling back civil rights protections AND preventing the public from providing feedback or sharing concerns. It's disgraceful."

"Transportation is how people access jobs, schools, and health care-it's the physical infrastructure of equal opportunity," said Guillermo Mayer, CEO & President of Public Advocates, a 55 year old civil rights law firm and advocacy organization based in California. "When transit agencies aren't required to consider the impact of their decisions, Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous riders can end up with larger service cuts, more crowded buses, and fare policies not designed with them in mind. Those are the types of harms Title VI disparate impact analysis prevents. Secretary Duffy's rescissions would make those harms invisible and unreviewable.

Congresswoman Simon's letter requests the DOT withdraw the Final Rule (RIN 2105-AF45) in its entirety, or at a minimum, retract and re-issue it as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making so members of the public have the opportunity to provide comments. You can read the final letter here.

In addition to Congresswoman Simon, this letter was signed by Representatives André Carson (D-IN-07), John Garamendi (D-CA-08), Jesús (Chuy) García (D-IL-04), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL-01), Sara Jacobs (D-CA-51), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Summer Lee (D-PA-12), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ-10), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07), Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-NJ-12), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12).

In Congress, Congresswoman Simon is a champion for accessible, reliable, and affordable public transit. She has introduced numerous transportation bills including the RIDER Safety Actand the Connecting Communities Through Transit Planning Act. Previously, Congresswoman Simon served as President of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors.

###