President Biden in NYC for Hudson Tunnel Project but ignores migrant hotel ... trends now
No time to visit NYC's migrants, Joe?
President Joe Biden flew into New York City on Tuesday to tout a $292 million mega grant that will be used to help build a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, but didn't find the time to drive-by or acknowledge NYC's burgeoning migrant housing crisis in midtown Manhattan - a mere 10-minute car ride away.
With temperatures near freezing, scores of migrants have set up pop-up tents on the sidewalk outside the Watson Hotel in midtown Manhattan to protest being relocated to a Brooklyn shelter - a symptom of a much bigger problem facing NYC as the flow of migrants overwhelms city resources.
Biden was joined by the state's Democratic political powerhouse consortium: Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Gov. Kathy Hochul, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, amongst others,
The money is part of $1.2 billion in mega grants being awarded under the 2021 infrastructure law. The yearslong modernization of the Hudson project started in 2013 but stalled as Trump all but blocked Schumer over funding for the project in exchange for his support for his wall at the southern border - something that Schumer refused to do.
President Joe Biden speaks about how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide funding for the Hudson River Tunnel project, at the West Side Rail Yard in New York City on January 31, 2023.
Only a 10-minute car ride away from Hudson Yards, President Biden did not take the opportunity to drive past the Watson Hotel in midtown Manhattan where a migrant crisis is unfolding
Biden is greeted by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., as he arrives to speak at the construction site of the Hudson Tunnel Project in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023
The current Hudson Tunnel Project is to repair 113-year old infrastructure which goes under the Hudson River was completed in 1910. In addition to age, the tunnels were damaged by saltwater during Hurricane Sandy in 2012
The Senate Majority Leader took aim at Trump for 'sabotaging' the long-running Gateway Program. 'The former president was shoveling you know what,' said Schumer with a wry smile.
Biden's recent trips along the East Coast corridor amount to a form of counterprogramming to the new House Republican majority as GOP lawmakers seek deep spending cuts in exchange for lifting the government's legal borrowing limit, saying that federal expenditures are hurting growth and that the budget should be balanced.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden are scheduled to officially meet at the White House on Wednesday to talk about the looming debt ceiling. The freshly minted Republican Speaker will press his case for spending
