The US Army Corps of Engineers is pausing more than $11 billion in what the agency calls lower-priority projects amid the government shutdown, according to Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Affected works include Massachusetts’ Cape Cod bridge program and water infrastructure in New York, though neither the White House nor the Corps have shared a list of paused projects.
Vought did not specify which projects were being affected in its social media post announcing the funding pause. He added that the Corps is also “considering cancellation” and said the list includes projects in New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore.
Blaming Democrats for the shutdown, even though the Senate has not passed interim spending bills submitted by either party, Vought wrote that the shutdown “has exhausted the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage billions of dollars in projects.”
Vought wrote more information about the body. Corps officials did not immediately share details about the affected projects, but the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works said by email that “the Corps may be unable to adequately oversee all projects currently in the portfolio, which include life- and safety-essential projects” because of the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
“To allow for continued oversight of the most critical projects across the country, we will pause and review other projects to see if we can deliver them more efficiently,” the assistant secretary said in her statement. “After the expiration and review is complete, the administration may consider taking additional actions permitted by law that limit, cancel, or prioritize resources in a manner that is consistent with those reviews and with the administration’s stated priorities.”
Citing an OMB spokesman, Reuters reported that the projects include $7 billion worth of work in New York, including water and wastewater infrastructure in New York City.
The pause also affects $600 million for the Cape Cod bridge program in Massachusetts, Reuters reported. The project is expected to replace the 90-year-old Sagamore and Bourne bridges, owned by the corps, that cross the Cape Cod Channel. Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement that the state had received no official notice of a pause and that the project continues to move forward with funding appropriated by Congress.
Construction on San Francisco’s waterfront is also affected, according to the report. He did not specify the projects affected, but the Corps has planned 7.5 miles of coastal flood prevention infrastructure in partnership with the city and port of San Francisco.
The pause is also affecting projects in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island, according to the report, which notes that all states voted against President Donald Trump in last year’s election.
“Once again, the corrupt Trump administration is weaponizing the government against its political opponents, this time threatening to end water infrastructure projects in blue states,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D.R.I.), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.
Since the start of the shutdown, the Trump administration has targeted funding for projects. The U.S. Department of Transportation halted $18 billion in funding for transit projects in New York, at least one of which Trump said has since been “terminated,” and $2 billion for transit projects in Chicago. The Department of Energy announced hundreds of grant cancellations totaling $7.6 billion. And Vought has led the layoff of thousands of federal workers, although a judge has temporarily blocked the so-called “reduction in force” amid a lawsuit filed by unions.
