Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

California was set to receive $384 million from National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program over 5 years

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), joined all Democratic members of the Committee in demanding answers from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy about the abrupt cutoff of funds for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation approved California’s five-year NEVI Deployment Plan on September 29, 2023, granting the state $384 million for critical zero-emission vehicle infrastructure along its highways, but the Trump Administration has illegally frozen the NEVI program.

The NEVI program — included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — provides funding directly to states for installing public zero-emission vehicle charging stations, which would lower fuel costs for families, reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, and create construction jobs nationwide. In a memo to state departments of transportation, the Federal Highway Administration announced states will no longer have access to $3 billion in previously approved federal funds for future construction projects.

“All 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico invested time and resources to prepare their plans, and all plans were approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Your abrupt cutoff of NEVI funding disregards these efforts and subjects states and their partners to delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic red tape. It also threatens the jobs, innovation, and environmental benefits that this program was ready and authorized to deliver through implementation,” wrote the Senators. 

“Unfortunately, your refusal to release NEVI funds to states is part of a larger, ongoing pattern by the Trump Administration of subverting the Constitution’s dedication to Congress of authority over federal spending,” continued the Senators. “As sweeping and vague as recent Executive Orders may be in expressing the administration’s policy preferences, they do not provide license under the Constitution to cut off funding for programs authorized and funded by Congress and enacted into law, and upon which our sovereign states have justifiably relied.”

The NEVI program invests in states to accelerate the nationwide buildout of public zero-emission vehicle charging infrastructure. States have already awarded more than $510 million in NEVI funding to construct charging ports, with more contracts ready to move forward. By pulling this funding, the Trump Administration is jeopardizing planned construction that could establish charging stations every 50 miles along 70 percent of major travel corridors by the end of 2055. Canceling this funding would leave many families, particularly in rural communities, without access to affordable zero-emission vehicle chargers.

Expanding access to reliable chargers will give Americans more choices in vehicles by making clean energy options more practical and by reducing dependence on expensive fossil-fueled cars. If implemented, NEVI investments will help curb the carbon pollution driving climate change, which poses an increasing threat to the U.S. economy and to American families through higher prices for groceries, insurance, and more.

In addition to Senators Padilla and Schiff, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also signed the letter.

The Senators requested documents and information by February 18, 2025, and an immediate reinstatement of NEVI funding.

Senator Padilla has consistently fought to reduce emissions across the transportation and freight sectors. Last year, Padilla successfully pushed the Biden Administration to launch a National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy to guide the national deployment of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty freight transportation vehicle (ZE-MHDV) charging and fueling infrastructure, which followed his efforts to call on the Joint Office to prioritize the deployment of ZE-MHDV as part of its core mission.

Since 2024, Senator Padilla has announced over $440 million for zero-emission vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure from the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program. In 2023, Padilla, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Representative Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-Calif.-44) introduced the bicameral EVs for All Act, legislation that would increase access to zero-emission vehicles for residents of public housing across the nation.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Secretary Duffy,

We write in strong opposition to your cutoff of funding for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program.  This action shows blatant disrespect for the law and for constitutional order.  

Established in the bipartisan infrastructure law, the NEVI program provides funding for every state in the nation.  As a condition for using this funding, the Biden Administration required each state department of transportation to submit for approval an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan—a responsible step to encourage states to think carefully about how they spend their funds under this program.  All 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico invested time and resources to prepare their plans, and all plans were approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation.  Your abrupt cutoff of NEVI funding disregards these efforts and subjects states and their partners to delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic red tape.  It also threatens the jobs, innovation, and environmental benefits that this program was ready and authorized to deliver through implementation.

Unfortunately, your refusal to release NEVI funds to states is part of a larger, ongoing pattern by the Trump Administration of subverting the Constitution’s delegation to Congress of authority over federal spending.  As sweeping and vague as recent Executive Orders may be in expressing the administration’s policy preferences, they do not provide license under the Constitution to cut off funding for programs authorized and funded by Congress and enacted into law, and upon which our sovereign states have justifiably relied.  

For these reasons, we urge you to retract your February 6 letter and to implement the law according to your responsibilities.  In addition, in order to assist us in understanding how and why you reached this decision hastily and in blatant disregard of the law, please respond to the following questions and requests for production of documents by no later than February 18, 2025:

1. On what legal grounds does the Department of Transportation (DOT) believe it has the authority to cancel all funding nationwide for the NEVI program?  Please cite to specific statutory or regulatory authority that permits DOT to cancel such a Congressionally-authorized appropriation.  We note that executive orders do not qualify as such statutory or regulatory authority, as they are neither statutes nor regulations.

2. Did any individual or office within the White House, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), or the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” specifically instruct you to cancel funding for the NEVI program?  If so, who did?

3. Please provide all emails dated November 5, 2024, through February 6, 2025, among and between you, DOT officials, the Trump-Vance Transition Team, the White House, Elon Musk, anyone working for or affiliated with the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” Russell Vought, and Office of Management and Budget officials—including but not limited to all “special government employees”—concerning the NEVI program.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

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