{"id":2035,"date":"2025-10-03T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:32:02","slug":"government-shutdown-chicago-infrastructure-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/government-shutdown-chicago-infrastructure-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pauses $2.1B for Chicago infrastructure projects, leveraging shutdown to pressure Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON (bdexpress) \u2014 White House budget director Russ Vought said the Trump administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city\u2019s Red Line train. Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was <em>\u201cput on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vought made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where he said $18 billion for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/abortion-pill-mifepristone-generic-fda-trump-kennedy\/\">FDA approves another generic abortion pill, prompting outrage from conservatives.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-bdexpress-news wp-block-embed-bdexpress-news\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"UJQXssnT4b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/abortion-pill-mifepristone-generic-fda-trump-kennedy\/\">FDA approves another generic abortion pill, prompting outrage from conservatives<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;FDA approves another generic abortion pill, prompting outrage from conservatives&#8221; &#8212; bdexpress.news\" src=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/abortion-pill-mifepristone-generic-fda-trump-kennedy\/embed\/#?secret=o8gQu28Ljz#?secret=UJQXssnT4b\" data-secret=\"UJQXssnT4b\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Losing the money would be a significant setback for Chicago\u2019s transportation plans. The Red Line extension is slated to add four train stops on the city\u2019s South Side, improving access for disadvantaged communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, a broader modernization project for the Red and Purple lines, which Vought said was also being targeted, is intended to upgrade stations and remove a bottleneck where different lines intersect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In New York\u2019s case, Trump\u2019s Transportation Department said it had been reviewing whether any <em>\u201cunconstitutional practices\u201d<\/em> were occurring in the two massive infrastructure projects but that the government shutdown, which began Wednesday, had forced it to furlough the staffers conducting the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The suspension of funds is likely meant to target Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, whom the White House is blaming for the impasse. He said the funding freeze would harm commuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cObstructing these projects is stupid and counterproductive because they create tens of thousands of great jobs and are essential for a strong regional and national economy,\u201d <\/em>Schumer said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/jones-mayfield-darnold-purdy\/\">Mac Jones is the latest quarterback to thrive with a new team<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-bdexpress-news wp-block-embed-bdexpress-news\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"z5HFvmebJC\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/jones-mayfield-darnold-purdy\/\">Mac Jones is the latest quarterback to thrive with a new team<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Mac Jones is the latest quarterback to thrive with a new team&#8221; &#8212; bdexpress.news\" src=\"https:\/\/en.bdexpress.news\/jones-mayfield-darnold-purdy\/embed\/#?secret=zn627Mh2Yg#?secret=z5HFvmebJC\" data-secret=\"z5HFvmebJC\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (bdexpress) \u2014 White House budget director Russ Vought said the Trump administration will withhold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[241,255,263,251],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-bdexpress","tag-international","tag-politics","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bdexpress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}