House Republicans push Mulvaney, Trump to rescind Gateway funds

A group of House Republicans is urging White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney to rescind funding in last month’s omnibus spending package that could go toward a multibillion-dollar rail project in the New York metro region.

In a Thursday letter, 27 GOP members of the House ask the Office of Management and Budget director to press President Trump to withhold the funds for the Gateway Program, a series of projects valued at $30 billion that includes restoring the Hudson River’s North River Tunnel. 

{mosads}

“[W]e urge you to advise the president to include in his message rescissions of budget authority from the appropriations accounts in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (‘the Act’) that could provide funding for the Gateway Program,” the lawmakers wrote.

Signatories include House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), caucus co-founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who has been an ardent opponent of federal dollars going toward Gateway.

The lawmakers are asking Mulvaney to suggest Trump withhold $388 million from the Northeast Corridor Grants, $225 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s State of Good Repair partnership account, and “such other amounts” from the $400 million allotted for State of Good Repair grants.

Meadows last month slammed the inclusion of funding for the project, which became a sticking point in spending negotiations, within the omnibus.

“It is troubling when we get a tunnel and we don’t get a wall,” Meadows said in March.

“And the last time I checked, the president didn’t make any promises about building a tunnel in any of his campaign stops, at least not anywhere in North Carolina.”

Trump threatened to veto the omnibus last month if it included federal funding for the Gateway project. While the final spending package did not include the original $900 million intended for the program, the rail project could tap up to $541 million in federal funding as a result of the omnibus.

“The president did not get his wall in the Omnibus. Chuck Schumer should not get his tunnel,” Budd said in a reference to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a New York City Democrat who supports the Gateway project.