Pelosi’s office says 2 controversial projects will be pulled from Covid bill
The relief package will also no longer include funding for the Seaway International Bridge in upstate New York. The $1.5 million in funding had been proposed during the Trump administration and supported by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose district includes the bridge.
A Senate source told CNN that the request to including funding for the bridge in the relief legislation was originally made by the Department of Transportation under the Trump administration in spring 2020 and that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, hadn’t known the funding was in the bill until he read about it in media reports.
The BART extension is not in Pelosi’s California district and would have occurred 50 miles south of the area she represents.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Tuesday that Covid had “an immediate and overwhelming effect on all of our transportation systems and the millions of transportation and construction jobs associated with them,” but now with the two projects removed, he added, “it is unclear how Republicans will justify their opposition” to the legislation.
