Conservative lawmakers are preparing to ask the Trump administration to strip funding that could be used for the Gateway project, a prospective tunnel between New York and New Jersey, from the spending deal President Trump signed last month, despite the White House’s assertion that the deal never included Gateway money.
More than a dozen House conservative members — including House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., a fierce opponent of Gateway — had signed a letter by Friday asking the administration to cut money that could be used for the project out of the budget. Lawmakers plan to send the letter to Trump’s budget office on Wednesday, according to a congressional aide, and GOP leaders seem willing to consider backing the removal of potential Gateway funding.
“House leaders are open to moving this,” said a senior Republican aide. “However, it’s hard to say much until we see the list of rescissions. And I’d note that it’s going to be a hard process, especially in the Senate.”
But the White House maintains that the spending bill never included funding for the project in the first place, despite some lawmakers’ claims that it did.
“There would be nothing to include in a rescission package because there’s no funding for Gateway” in the omnibus, White House legislative director Marc Short told the Washington Examiner.
Short said much of the money some have described as Gateway funding is actually in a grant program for which anyone can apply.
Trump had railed against funding the massive infrastructure project before Congress struck a bipartisan spending deal in March, even threatening to veto the omnibus if lawmakers included Gateway in the legislation. White House aides said at the time that they expected members to follow Trump’s orders not to fund the project due to concerns from Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao over how little New York and New Jersey planned to contribute toward the tunnels that would connect their states.
Conservative members fought during spending talks to exclude money for the project from the $1.3 trillion omnibus, but the final bill ultimately included $540 million that some argued could be used for construction of the tunnels.
Trump threatened to veto the spending bill Congress sent him last month over his frustration with how little money the legislation set aside for construction of his border wall, its inclusion of possible Gateway funding, and its continuation of funding for Planned Parenthood, among other concerns.
“There are a lot of things I’m not happy about in this bill. There are a lot of things we should not have had in this bill,” Trump said on March 23, the day he signed the legislation.
Now, the White House is eyeing ways to trim items from the omnibus by relying on the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act to ask that Congress rescind appropriations from the spending bill.
Larry Kudlow, chairman of the National Economic Council, said Sunday that the White House soon plans to send a rescission package to Congress, where the idea of voting on spending cuts has gained traction.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Friday that Republicans are pushing to vote on the cuts, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that a rescissions package is “worth a discussion.”
Budd authored the letter conservatives plan to send to Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, next week as part of their efforts to keep federal dollars from paying for Gateway.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, asks Mulvaney to consider cutting $225 million from a federal program that doles out transportation grants to states and $388 million from an Amtrak account meant to service the Northeast Corridor. Gateway funds were expected to come from both sources, and a congressional aide said the requested cut was larger than the reported $540 million amount in potential appropriations for Gateway because it slashed funds from all the programs that could be used to foot the project’s bill.
“This is an opportunity to ensure that [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] doesn’t get his tunnel before President Trump gets his wall. I’m optimistic that the administration will send a robust series of cuts to fix the terrible omnibus spending bill,” Budd said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Gateway should be included and I hope the administration does so.”
Other members who signed the bill, including Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., have argued the money that Gateway proponents could potentially use to fund the tunnel project should instead be diverted to pay for construction of Trump’s border wall.
“The omnibus failed to put the priorities of the American people first. There is no infrastructure more important than building a wall to secure our border,” Gosar said. “Sending funds to build a tunnel benefiting two states over sending funds to build a wall for the entire country endangers the American people. I urge the president to cut spending to the Gateway project and put the priorities and safety of the entire country first.”
Despite some conservatives’ objections, the Gateway project has bipartisan support, particularly among lawmakers who represent New York and New Jersey. Proponents of the project note the current rail system that runs under the Hudson River is desperately in need of repairs and may need to be closed in the future for maintenance, which could leave thousands of commuters stranded.
Gateway has long been considered among the most important infrastructure priorities in the country.
