House Democrats are worried that two bridges to Cape Cod, Mass., a flood mitigation project on the South San Francisco Bay shoreline, water and wastewater infrastructure in Queens, N.Y, and navigation projects on both coasts could fall victim to an administration threat to pause Army Corps of Engineers funding.
The lawmakers are seeking details after Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said two weeks ago the administration would pause $11 billion in corps funding and consider canceling the projects because of the partial government shutdown. Vought said the “low-priority projects” were in New York, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco but provided no more details.
House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and 30 other Democrats on the panel pressed the corps in a Friday letter for updates about four areas “mentioned by an OMB spokesperson” on the day of Vought’s announcement: the Bourne and Sagamore bridges to Cape Cod; navigation improvements in New York-New Jersey, Long Beach, Calif., and Baltimore; the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline project; and water and wastewater infrastructure in Queens.
