Boston Mayor Wu sues Trump administration for rescinding Roxbury's $20 million federal transit grant

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Sep 28, 2026

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BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that alleges it unlawfully rescinded a $20 million grant awarded in 2022 for Roxbury street upgrades because the project no longer aligns with federal priorities.

“We’re fighting for every dollar of investment to improve quality of life for Roxbury residents, commuters, and businesses,” Wu said Monday in a statement. “Boston earned this competitive grant to meet community needs and address long-needed infrastructure upgrades.

“The City of Boston will continue to fight back against lawless federal attacks, and we urge the court to reverse the Trump administration’s illegal actions and restore these critical funds for Roxbury,” the mayor added.

The city’s lawsuit alleges the grant withdrawal by the U.S. Department of Transportation was politically motivated. It said the reversal was based on a “small” portion of allocated funds that were set aside for electric vehicle charging, which goes against the Trump administration’s stated energy priorities.

“In September 2025, after three years of grant planning, DOT abruptly and without warning withdrew the city’s award,” the city’s lawsuit filed against DOT and its Secretary Sean Duffy in federal court, states. “In a brief letter, DOT stated that the agency’s priorities ‘presently include: promoting traditional forms of energy and natural resources,’ and ‘ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used efficiently.’

“DOT then claimed to have reviewed the city’s grant in light of these priorities and determined that the grant was ‘inconsistent’ with them ‘because of the project’s inclusion of EV charging infrastructure,’” the lawsuit went on to state.

The city’s filing states the DOT’s decision to withdraw the funds was unexpected, given that “less than 1%” of the planned project costs would have gone towards EV charging infrastructure, and DOT itself had encouraged the city to include that initiative when applying for the grant to improve its chances of winning the funds.

The $20 million in funding for the project was awarded to the city by the Biden administration in 2022, as part of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE grant program.

The grant was set to fund the Roxbury Resilient Corridors project, including state of good repair, safety, transit, accessibility and traffic flow improvements to Melnea Cass Boulevard, Malcolm X Boulevard, and Warren Street.

The city contends that the funds were clawed back in September 2025 due to the federal government’s shifting political priorities that occurred under the second Trump administration.

“DOT’s withdrawal of the Boston grant award did not occur in a vacuum,” the lawsuit states. “On Jan. 20, 2025, the president issued an executive order titled ‘unleashing American energy.’

“The executive order included plans to ‘terminate the Green New Deal,’ and instructed federal agencies to ‘consider the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies,” the lawsuit added.

The city said the federal government’s budget office issued a memo the following day that “instructed federal agencies to freeze … funds that would support EV projects and other environmental sustainability priorities established by Congress.”

The lawsuit claims that the Wu administration offered to remove the funding it designated for EV charging infrastructure to allow the Roxbury project to move forward, but was told by the feds in early January that it “remains canceled.”

The city contends that by withdrawing the grant, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation acted against the instruction of Congress, which created the grant program and its application eligibility parameters.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents Roxbury and advocated for the grant funding, issued a statement that said, “These funds are an essential investment in Roxbury and the unlawful cancellation of this grant is more evidence of Sean Duffy and Donald Trump’s contempt for the people we serve.

“There was no good reason to rescind these funds,” Pressley added. “DOT should reverse course so we can move this project forward, improve the daily lives of commuters, and enhance the climate resilience of at-risk communities — just as Congress intended.”

The city claims it has been irreparably harmed by the loss of funds, given that it was relying on the federal grant to pay for roughly 60% of the Roxbury street upgrade project, which is estimated to cost just shy of $34 million. It was thus “forced to suspend the project,” per the lawsuit.

A USDOT spokesperson issued a statement that said the department is reviewing the city’s lawsuit.

The spokesperson added, “DOT remains committed to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and in ways that benefit all Americans.”

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