By Christian Britschgi | Reason
Going back to the 2020 campaign trail, President Joe Biden has endorsed the idea of using federal dollars to encourage states and localities to remove regulations and red tape on new housing construction.
In May, the White House seemingly put some money where its mouth was when it released its wide-ranging Housing Supply Action Plan. The plan included an announcement that jurisdictions that had adopted policies promoting density and zoning reforms would be looked on more favorably for $6 billion in transportation grants.
Then, earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the recipients of $2.2 billion of that zoning reform-linked grant money from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program.
The results were disappointing.
