Overview
- Reuters, CNN and NBC reported that the president offered to free frozen Gateway tunnel funding if New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles Airport were renamed for him.
- Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer rejected the reported offer and said he lacks authority to change those names.
- Federal support has been on hold since an October freeze, and a judge was set to hear an emergency motion from New York and New Jersey today.
- The Gateway project to add a new Hudson River tunnel and rehabilitate the existing one is estimated at about $16 billion with roughly $15 billion previously pledged federally, and coverage warns jobs and commuter service could suffer if funding remains blocked.
- Democrats including Kirsten Gillibrand and Jerry Nadler criticized the reported condition, and outlets framed it within recent moves to attach Trump’s name to public institutions such as the Kennedy Center.