[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1466-H1467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GATEWAY PROJECT FUNDING

  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Transportation Secretary Elaine 
Chao testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. 
Secretary Chao acknowledged that President Trump is personally 
intervening to prevent Federal funding of the Gateway Project, which is 
the Nation's most critical infrastructure project.
  Mr. Speaker, the Gateway Project would rebuild the crumbling rail 
infrastructure that connects New York and New Jersey, a key point in 
Amtrak and the Northeast corridor's rail line between New Jersey and 
New York and, also, 415 trains that go through those tunnels each day. 
New York and New Jersey have promised billions of dollars towards the 
project, but President Trump is actively undermining Gateway.
  As anyone who had plans to travel by Amtrak or by rail during last 
week's cyclone knows, the trans-Hudson track

[[Page H1467]]

infrastructure connects not just the two States, but the entire region 
between Boston and Washington, D.C. Because Gateway is so important to 
everyone in the Northeast, a substantial Federal commitment is 
necessary to make this project a reality.
  The Gateway Project is far too important to be left unfunded. Gateway 
should not be sacrificed because of President Trump's political 
animosity.

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