Schumer: Gateway project is a go despite Trump's objection
Source: The Hill
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 03/07/18 12:08 PM EST
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that a multibillion-dollar rail project in the New York metro region is a go, despite the Trump administration’s opposition to funding the program in an upcoming omnibus spending bill.
“The goods news is we have bipartisan support for getting it done,” Schumer told reporters as Democrats unveiled their own infrastructure plan. “And from everything I hear, it’s all-systems-move-ahead despite what the president had to say.”
New York and New Jersey lawmakers for the last week have pressed Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for answers on the Gateway Program, which aims to rebuild passenger rail connections under the Hudson River between the two states. Chao engaged in heated exchanges with several lawmakers from the two states on Tuesday in front of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, arguing the states should put up more money for Gateway. In one of those interactions, Chao appeared to confirm a report in The Washington Post that said President Trump pressed Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to block $950 million in funding for the project.
But a senior Department of Transportation official later clarified to reporters that the administration opposes funding the project in the upcoming spending bill, describing the money as an earmark, but is not trying to kill the program altogether.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/railroads/377179-schumer-gateway-project-is-a-go-despite-trump-administrations
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