A powerful Democratic senator is blasting President Donald Trump and his Budget Office director Russell Vought for canceling or pausing tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in states that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“More blatant extortion attempts coming out of the White House this morning,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) declared on Friday. Murray is the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Trump and Vought are targeting projects in blue states to punish their political opposition by hurting regular people. Everyone can see these crooks for what they are & none of us should be intimidated.”
On Wednesday, Office of Management and Budget Director Vought paused or canceled approximately $18 billion in two New York City infrastructure projects — one of which also directly impacts New Jersey residents. He claimed it was to “ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.”
READ MORE: Trump’s Late-Night Rant Brands Dems ‘Party of Satan’ Weeks After Kirk Rhetoric Blame Game
Vought then went on to cancel nearly $8 billion in funding for what he labeled “Green New Scam” projects across sixteen states that did not vote for Trump in 2024: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.
On Friday, as Murray mentioned, Vought paused billions in infrastructure projects for Chicago — a top Trump target.
“$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects–specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project–have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” Vought declared.
Politico’s E&E News reported this week that the Department of Energy “has been reviewing the nation’s portfolio of research and development projects for months now, freezing funding that was largely obligated, according to one agency staffer granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.”
“Lists of projects that are supposed to get cut have been wafting around the building for weeks,” a staffer told E&E. “Most of the time, they are very partisan in terms of what states canceled projects are from. It’s just naked politics.”
READ MORE: Leavitt Explains White House Claim ‘Illegals’ Get Free Health Care—Experts Disagree
Image via Wikimedia Commons / Public domain