Schumer Successfully Beats Back Draconian Cuts Passed by GOP House that Would Have Gutted Funding for East Side Access by 50% and Brought Project to a Halt

Press Release

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced today that he had successfully defeated a House GOP proposal that would have gutted funding for East Side Access construction and brought the project to a halt. Under the House version of the FY 2012 Transportation/HUD appropriations bill, funding for the project would have been cut 47% from the president's $215 million request for East Side Access and 21% would have been cut from the $197 million requested by the president for the Second Avenue Subway. Schumer fought these proposed cuts in conference and restored funding to ensure these projects will not be ground to a halt.

"East Side Access is a transformative infrastructure project that employs thousands of New Yorkers and will shave off commute times for tens of thousands of commuters from Long Island. While the cuts passed in the House put the project on life-support, I am pleased we were able to beat back these cuts and keep the project moving forward. " said Schumer.

The East Side Access Project, a joint federal-state effort, is a rail link from the LIRR, via the 63rd Street Tunnel, to Grand Central Terminal that will help tens of thousands of Nassau, Suffolk commuters save up to 30-40 minutes on their daily commutes. The project will also free up much needed capacity at Penn Station, alleviating what have become almost routine train delays. The Second Avenue Subway project is intended to ease congestion on the Lexington Avenue line, the most crowded subway line in the nation, by constructing a two-track line connecting 125th Street to the Financial District in Manhattan as well as a connection from Second Avenue through the 63rd Street tunnel to existing tracks in West Midtown and Brooklyn.

Under drastic budget cuts proposed by the House, funding for both of these projects would have been drastically cut, forcing the projects to stop in their tracks at the end of the year and putting thousands of construction workers and suppliers across New York out of work. The House version of the bill would have cut funding for East Side Access by 47% compared to the President's original budget request of $215 million and would have cut 21% cut from the $197 million the President requested for the Second Avenue Subway.

Schumer worked with Senate leaders on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) to block the cuts and urged colleagues to continue funding the projects at their current levels. Schumer today was happy to announce that House and Senate negotiators had agreed to preserve nearly all of the funding for these two projects: $203,424,000 for East Side Access, and $186,566,000 for the Second Avenue Subway. Schumer has also been working to secure an additional $2.2 billion in unused railroad funds, through the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program (RRIF), forfeited by New Jersey's rejection of the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) tunnel project to cover any remaining costs of the project.

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