Secretary Duffy tells appropriators DOT is working through 3,200 announced grants; pledges dashboard and tech tools
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Summary
The secretary said DOT inherited a backlog of about 3,200 announced grant awards that still require finalized agreements and pledged to consolidate grant-tracking systems and explore AI to speed processing.
Committee members repeatedly pressed Secretary Sean Duffy on the department’s pace of finalizing grant agreements that were announced under the prior administration.
Duffy told the subcommittee the department inherited “an unprecedented backlog of 3,200 awards” and that his team had approved 405 grants totaling about $4,900,000,000 in the administration’s first 100-plus days. He said DOT is working to consolidate 10–14 disparate grant-tracking systems into a single public dashboard and is examining technological tools, including AI, to speed grant-agreement processing.
Why this matters: project sponsors, contractors and local governments rely on executed grant agreements to begin work in construction seasons; delays can disrupt capital programs and increase costs. Members said delays, when combined with higher commodity prices and tariffs, have already pushed some projects out of reach for localities.
Clarifying details from the hearing: committee staff cited roughly 480 grants cleared (about 15% of the announced backlog) in preliminary tracking; the secretary said the pace is accelerating and committed to follow-up with more detailed status reporting.
Discussion vs. decision: the hearing recorded promises to deliver better visibility and to seek efficiencies; no formal reprogramming or rescission was decided at the hearing.
What’s next: DOT agreed to provide the committee with more detailed status updates, and members asked for greater transparency around notification to grantees when the department completes agreement steps.