CHICAGO (AP) – President Donald Trump’s administration withholds $2.1 billion for the Chicago infrastructure project, White House budget director said Friday that it is expanding its fundraising fight targeting democratic regions Government closure.
The pause affects the much-anticipated plan to extend the city’s red line train. The funds were “pending to prevent funds from flowing through racial-based contracts,” Budget Director Russ Vault wrote on social media.
Vought made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York. $18 billion in infrastructure It will be suspended, including funding for a new railway tunnel under the Hudson River.
Trump, a Republican, embraces Vought’s tactics. On Thursday night, he posted a video depicting him as a Grim Reaper, wearing a hood and carrying a sickle.
Losing money is a significant setback Chicago Transportation Plans. The Red Line extension plans to add four train stops on the south side of the city, improving access to underprivileged communities.
Rogers Jones, director of the Violence Prevention Youth Centre, next to the planned Roseland Red Line Station, is called a serious blow to some of the region’s most disadvantaged areas.
Authorities are destroying homes, widening roads, cutting grass, cutting grass and erecting signs throughout the area in preparation for the new station, he said.
“When I talk to my neighbors today, they expected it, so they want to put a curse on them,” Jones said. “I just don’t understand the Trump administration and it does that kind of harm. When people are hoping for something good and it doesn’t come, it’s devastating.”
Additionally, Vought said it is also targeted by a wider modernization project of the red and purple lines, but aims to upgrade the station and remove bottlenecks where different lines intersect.
Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat, criticized the White House announcement, calling it “a very bad day for public transport in a weaponized country.”
“This is our precious baby and they know that,” Quigley said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “This was Chicago’s most important new transportation project for the first time in 50 years.”
In New York, Trump’s Department of Transportation is considering whether “unconstitutional practices” have occurred in two large infrastructure projects, but said the government shutdown, which began Wednesday, forced staff to strike reviews.
Funds suspended for Hudson River Tunnel Project and Second Avenue subway line extension The aim is to target Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The New York senator said the funding freeze would harm commuters.
“Stopping these projects is stupid and counterproductive because they produce great work for tens of thousands and are essential to a strong local and national economy,” Schumer said in X.
Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute specializing in transportation, said he expects Chicago and New York to be sued to claim they are simply following federal law in pursuing projects acquired through a competitive grant process.
Even if the city ultimately wins, the project will take much longer and be much more expensive due to the delay, Freemark said. Competitive grant programs, such as those based on the Infrastructure Act, are being implemented in part to avoid partisan decisions about how governments should spread out their money, he said.
“I think what we’re seeing in the Trump administration is that the federal government can reject their commitment to these grants,” Freemark said.
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This story was revised to show that $18 billion was held in New York, not $18 million.
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Major reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Joey Cappelletti from Washington contributed to this report.
