President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met privately Thursday to discuss infrastructure funding for New York’s Gateway tunnel project as well as healthcare and immigration policy.
The rare afternoon meeting between the president and the most powerful congressional Democrat wasn’t publicly known until after it had ended.
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“President Trump requested a meeting with Leader Schumer at the White House to discuss the president’s hold on the Gateway tunnel project between New York and New Jersey,” the senator’s office said in a statement.
Trump froze about $18 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel and the Second Avenue subway project in October — making the announcement on the first day of the Schumer-led shutdown, during which Democrats for 43 days held up government funding in a bid to extend middle class Obamacare subsidies.
“In the meeting, Leader Schumer emphasized the urgent need to promptly release the already-secured funds for the Gateway Program — the most important infrastructure project in the nation employing thousands of workers and vital to New York and the entire Northeast economy,” his office said.
“Leader Schumer also raised the need for President Trump to push Senate Republicans to support the 3-year extension of the ACA tax credit bill that has already passed the House.”
Trump on Thursday announced a new Republican legislative plan for healthcare, featuring federal subsidies that would flow into Health Savings Accounts, rather than go toward health insurance premiums. The pandemic-era subsidies that expired Dec. 31 went to about 20 million middle-class policy holders.
Schumer also “told the president ICE raids are terrorizing communities [and] told President Trump that their actions are dangerous and putting more people at risk and he must pull back ICE from U.S. cities,” his office said.
The White House did not immediately comment on the meeting.
