Have dozens of state water and shoreline protection projects run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers come to a grinding halt?\u00a0Trump\u2019s top budget director announced in an Oct. 17 tweet that due to the shutdown the “corps will be immediately pausing over $11 billion in lower-priority projects & considering them for cancellation, including projects in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore?”<\/p>\n
But not on Long Island, according to Nassau and Suffolk\u2019s bipartisan U.S. House delegation, who told Newsday they reached out to the White House and were told of no impacted projects. As for the rest of the state, the Army Corps of Engineers and Office of Management and Budget has not released a list two weeks since the announcement was made.<\/p>\n
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDThe Trump Administration has threatened federal funding for billions of dollars in New York infrastructure projects, promising immediate action. But those projects cannot be paused as quickly as dispatching\u00a0an online X post.\u00a0New York Democratic officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul\u00a0and constitutional scholars maintain the administration does not have the authority to halt previously\u00a0approved funding without Congressional consent.\u00a0The administration\u2019s announcements are designed to put pressure on congressional Democrats, particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the monthlong U.S. government shutdown, the Trump Administration has threatened federal funding for billions of dollars in New York infrastructure projects, promising immediate action. But those projects,\u00a0years in the making and with multiple funding streams from federal to local, cannot be paused as quickly as dispatching\u00a0an online X post.<\/p>\n
New York Democratic officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul\u00a0and constitutional scholars maintain the administration does not have the authority to halt previously\u00a0approved funding without Congressional consent. Hochul\u00a0has threatened to sue the administration over the pauses.<\/p>\n
“Once Congress appropriates funds for a project, like the Gateway Tunnel or an Army Corps project, the executive branch is legally obligated to carry out the appropriation in good faith, unless Congress later changes the law,” said James Sample, a constitutional Law professor at Hofstra University.<\/p>\n
Work continues<\/p>\n
With Congress at an impasse over a short-term spending bill to fund the government, the Trump administration has made no formal rescission request of lawmakers regarding the Blue-state projects it is looking to pause, and work has continued on the projects despite the threats of funding freezes.<\/p>\n
“In a world of checks and balances, without going through the formal rescission process … the President, or OMB does not have the legal right to cancel, pause, or put under review appropriated and obligated funding merely for policy or political reasons,” Sample told Newsday in a phone interview.<\/p>\n