Trump Transportation Department to prioritize birth rates in doling out projects amid declining fertility

The Trump administration will prioritize birth rates in doling out transportation projects, testing out a rising philosophy of conservative politics, and punishing blue cities in the process.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the father of nine children, released an undated memo saying the department will act on “sound economic principles” while maximizing benefits for families, representing a new direction for the agency and a new way of thinking about federal projects.

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Oren Cass, a high-profile political adviser whom Vance has praised, admits that pro-family policy can be a tough sell but argues it’s a worthwhile project that should be emphasized at least as much as economic growth.

“At first, the family-policy mindset will seem almost nonsensical,” he wrote in 2020. “Which infrastructure investments boost fertility the most, which education policies boost marriage rates? What kind of questions are those, how would we answer them, and what could we possibly do with the information?”

“Yet our confusion should be what strikes us as strange,” Cass added. “In what sort of society would we ask those questions about economic growth and design policy accordingly, while ignoring them with respect to the family?”