Congress quietly defunds EV charging, redirects billions to highway work

What it does

This bill redirects unobligated federal funds originally designated for electric vehicle charging infrastructure (from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) to traditional highway projects instead—including road resurfacing, bridge repairs, wildlife crossing structures, and truck parking. States receive the redirected funds proportionally based on their existing highway apportionments, and the funds may no longer be used for EV charging deployment.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is to strip EV charging funds from their original purpose and repurpose them for traditional highway work. The title 'Highway Funding Flexibility' obscures the fact that the bill eliminates dedicated EV infrastructure funding, not merely adds flexibility to existing highway budgets.

What the text implies

• The bill eliminates federal EV charging deployment funding without replacing it, effectively abandoning the IIJA's climate and energy-transition commitments for those specific programs.
• States gain discretion to spend EV funds on traditional highway projects, creating a de facto subsidy for road construction at the expense of EV infrastructure—a reversal of federal climate policy priorities.
• The 'set-asides' language in section 2(c) appears to redirect Joint Office and equity-focused EV charging funds to the same highway-construction pool, eliminating targeted support for underserved communities.
• Future fiscal years' EV charging allocations are also redirected, making this a permanent policy shift, not a one-time reallocation of unobligated balances.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Citizens lose federal investment in EV charging infrastructure, which was a public commitment to reduce transportation emissions and support the transition to electric vehicles. While highway maintenance is legitimate, the redirection represents a retreat from climate and energy-transition goals without public debate or replacement funding for EV infrastructure.

Who stands to gain

• highway construction contractors
• road maintenance and resurfacing firms
• bridge repair contractors
• commercial trucking industry (truck parking improvements)

Named in the bill

Department of Transportation, National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, States (highway apportionment recipients), Federal Highway Administration

Where it stands

2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.

• Jun 12, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Jun 12, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Energy…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

3 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,895,758 in lobbying spend. A filing names 133 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.

Dusty Johnson, the sponsor, reported $325,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies — $1,005,758 on 2 filings
• American Trucking Associations — $720,000 on 1 filing
• Samsung Sdi America, Inc. — $170,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.