A construction laborer works on a sidewalk at the corner of Beach Road and Msgr. Guerrero Road in San Jose on Thursday.
THE ongoing improvement of Beach Road, from the San Jose intersection to Chalan Piao, “barely escaped” a memorandum from the U.S. Department of Energy to suspend its funding in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order, according to Department of Public Works Secretary Ray N. Yumul.
On Monday, DPW received a memorandum from DOE Acquisition Director Sara Wilson regarding the president’s executive order titled, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [or DEI] Programs and Preferencing.”
According to Wilson’s memo, DOE “is moving aggressively to implement this executive order” by directing the suspension of the following activities in any loans, loan guarantees, grants, cost sharing agreements, contracts awards or any other source of DOE funding:
1) DEI programs and activities relating to DEI objectives and principles.
2) Community benefit plans.
3) Justice40 Initiative requirements, conditions or principles.
The Justice40 Initiative was established by former President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14008, and includes programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. These programs include the federally funded Beach Road improvement project, which Gov. Arnold I. Palacios expects will be completed this year.
In an interview on Wednesday, Yumul said Phase 2 of Beach Road Improvement Project received $7 million from the Justice40 Initiative, through the Office of Insular Affairs.
Wilson’s memo stated that “recipients and subrecipients must cease activities, including contracted activities, and stop incurring costs associated with DEI and [Community Benefits Plan] activities effective as of the date of this letter for all DOE grants, cooperative agreements, loans, loan guarantees, cost-sharing agreements, or other DOE funding of any kind.”
Yumul said the DOE memo essentially halts the drawdown of any funds from the $7 million allocated for Phase 2 of the Beach Road Improvement Project.
“Luckily,” he said, “we had drawn down a majority of the CIP funding for the Beach Road Improvement Project.” The remaining balance is $335,000. Due to the DOE memo, DPW may not be able to access these funds, Yumul said.
Still, since DPW has drawn down most of the $7 million in funds, the road project contracted to GPPC Inc. should continue, he added.
“[The] work is already nearing completion, hopefully by March,” he said. In November he said, GPPC asked for a time extension due to weather-related delays.
Yumul said he now needs to find other funding sources that can be redirected to the project to cover a possible shortfall.
