Biden in New York with $292 million for a tunnel across the Hudson River; The riders just want the nightmare to end

New day, new tunnel.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday showed off a $292 million mega-grant that will be used to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, part of a broader effort to contrast his economic vision with that of the Republicans. .

The money is part of $1.2 billion in mega-grants made available under the 2021 Infrastructure Act. The Democratic president’s trip to New York followed his Monday stop in Baltimore to highlight the replacement of an aging rail tunnel, where he promised public spending on infrastructure would boost economic growth and create jobs.

The New York stop also gave Biden the opportunity to highlight that his administration is launching a project that has languished during President Donald Trump’s tenure. The multi-year upgrade of Project Hudson began in 2013 but stalled as Trump argued with Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over funding for the project.

“This is one of the largest and most important projects in the country,” Biden said. “But we finally have the money, and we’re going to do it. I promise we will do it.”

The trips to New York and Baltimore represent a form of counter-programming of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives. GOP MPs are pushing for massive spending cuts in exchange for lifting the statutory borrowing limit, saying federal spending is holding back growth and that the budget needs to be balanced.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, and Biden are due to meet Wednesday, with the Republican MP set to push for spending cuts, though White House officials say Biden will not negotiate the need to increase the federal debt. limit.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in America who doesn’t agree that there are some wasteful spending by Washington that we can get rid of,” McCarthy told CBS News on Sunday.

Mitch Landrieu, a senior White House adviser in charge of coordinating the implementation of the laws, told reporters Tuesday that if Republicans want to “take money from projects, I think they should determine which projects they don’t want.”

“And then you can discuss it with the American people,” Landrieux added.

To some in the Biden administration, the Hudson Tunnel Project demonstrates what can be lost if spending cuts are implemented. In total, the construction will create 72,000 jobs, according to the White House.

The project will repair a 1910 tunnel that already carries about 200,000 weekday passengers under the Hudson between New Jersey and Manhattan, long delayed after decades of government underfunded infrastructure.

“We cannot become world leaders in this century if we depend on the infrastructure of the beginning of the last century,” Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg said.

The grant will be used to complete the concrete lining of an additional railway tunnel under the river, preserving the right-of-way for the future tunnel. The project is expected to cost $16 billion in total and will help eliminate the bottleneck for New Jersey commuters and Amtrak passengers traveling through New York.

Biden has proven that the project is critical far beyond the confines of Greater New York.

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“If this line closes for just one day, it will cost our economy $100 million,” Biden said.

Other projects that have received mega-grants include the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio; replacing a bridge across the Calcasieu River in Louisiana; commuter rail in Illinois; bridge across the Alligator River in North Carolina; a California transit and highway plan; and roads in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi.

Not everyone liked the mega-grant program. Some Republican lawmakers in Arizona say they have prioritized public transit and renovation projects over expansion and new construction.

Senator Corey Booker, DN.J., noted that the Northeast Corridor generates approximately 20% of US GDP and that Biden has finally opened a long-awaited upgrade to an important artery that moves countless people and goods through the US heartland. economy. Booker called it poetic that Biden, who traveled regularly from his home in Delaware and Washington during his time in the Senate, was the one who got the project back on track.

“This is a hallelujah moment,” Booker said.

Schumer criticized Trump for slowing down the project during his administration as he feuded with the Democrats.

“Get on the Joe Biden Express now because we’re not stopping,” Schumer said. “For four years, the former president has been digging you know what, and now we are going to put real shovels in the ground, which are armed with real American workers.”