Transportation department failed to deliver INFRA grant transparency memo days after reports that it unfairly helped Kentucky win multimillion dollar INFRA grant

WASHINGTON – Secretary Elaine Chao’s Department of Transportation (DOT) missed its deadline to deliver a months-overdue memo intended to bring transparency around the agency’s INFRA freight grant decision-making processes to the House Transportation Committee by today.

Just days ago, a bombshell report revealed Chao may have unfairly helped Kentucky, the state her husband Mitch McConnell represents in the Senate, win a highly competitive $67.4 million INFRA grant this year — the largest transportation grant the state has received under the Trump administration.

“Chao’s efforts to block transparency at her department are endless,” said Lizzy Price, director of Restore Public Trust. “Just this week, new evidence revealed that Elaine Chao abused her power to unfairly help Kentucky with a competitive grant application. Chao has failed time and again to be open with the American public about her agency’s actions. Enough is enough. Chao must be held accountable for repeatedly favoring Kentucky — where her husband Mitch McConnell is running for reelection — at the expense of taxpayers nationwide.”

Representatives Peter DeFazio and Eleanor Holmes Norton first requested the INFRA grant memo from the DOT in July of 2019.

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