June 12, 2026—NPR covered the U.S. DOT’s rescission of Title VI disparate impact protections—the same rollback Public Advocates Senior Policy Advocate Laurel for Transportation Equity, Laurel Paget-Seekins, called “a major rollback of civil rights protections” in earlier coverage by KQED. USDOT oversees federal funding for transit, highways, airports, and ports nationwide—meaning this rule change affects how communities are considered (or not) across every mode of transportation infrastructure in the country. Laurel told NPR that losing this tool is “devastating,” given the long history of inequity embedded in U.S. transportation infrastructure.

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