Speaking inside the Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center on 125th Street, Espaillat stressed that the community has waited over 100 years for the project and vowed to keep pressing for federal support. We've got to continue the fight for the funding to be there, he said. And again, I think the main and most important thing is that the project that we've been waiting for for over 100 years continues to move forward.
The $17.2 billion Hudson River tunnel project -- which received more than $11 billion in federal grants -- is repairing an existing tunnel, and building a new one for passenger railroad Amtrak and state commuter lines between New Jersey and Manhattan. Any failure of the current Hudson tunnel, which was heavily damaged during 2012's Superstorm Sandy, would hobble commuting in the metropolitan area that produces 10% of the country's economic output.
The memo arrived nearly two months after Austin lost a $105 million grant for the Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch program, which was initially awarded last year. That funding was lost as part of a national rescission of unobligated Neighborhood Access & Equity awards, even though the city had already committed $104 million in local money to ensure structural supports are included in TxDOT's rebuild of I-35 through downtown.
Trump on Monday warned New York City residents not to vote for Mamdani, whom Trump called a "self proclaimed New York City Communist," and said if Mamdani wins in November, "He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great city." Trump continued: "Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his fake communist promises. He won't be getting any of it, so what's the point of voting for him?"
In a post on his Truth Social page, Trump falsely labeled Mamdani a "communist" and predicted that "he is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City." Trump then elaborated on the "problems" Mamdani would face. "Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises," Trump wrote.
These are not budgetary measures, they are ideological attacks [that] would erase protections, endanger lives and weaponise federal funding to coerce institutions into abandoning care. For many, access to HRT and affirming care is not optional, it's life-saving.
Trump's Commerce Department rewrote the rules of the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program, forcing states to change how they spend money earmarked for expanding broadband access. The overhaul led states to reduce spending on fiber networks and increase spending on satellite-although not to the extent sought by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is demanding more money for his Starlink network.
