The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will stall, and consider canceling, more than $11 billion in initiatives because of the government shutdown, as stated by the Trump administration budget chief Russell Vought on Friday.
“The Democrat shutdown has depleted the Army Corps of Engineers’ capability to oversee billions in initiatives,” Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, remarked in an X post.
The halted funds relate to “less-critical initiatives” in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore, Vought indicated.
The Army Corps of Engineers, delivering an extensive array of public engineering services and employing over 37,000 personnel, including civilians and soldiers, did not promptly reply to CNBC’s inquiries regarding Vought’s statement.
Vought, a co-author of the conservative guide for significant governmental reform called Project 2025, has been the first to declare federal layoffs and funding halts that the Trump administration attributes to the shutdown.
President Donald Trump and Vought have also described the funding interruption from Congress as a chance to reduce the federal bureaucracy. Trump has asserted that only Democratic priorities are under scrutiny.
On the first day of the shutdown, Vought disclosed that the administration was putting a hold on around $18 billion for two major infrastructure initiatives in New York City and canceling about $8 billion for climate-related initiatives in states that lean Democratic.
Two days later, Vought announced another $2.1 billion in Department of Transportation funding that was intended for the Chicago transit system is now frozen.
The White House has also claimed that the shutdown will lead to thousands of federal employees facing layoffs.
The administration noted last week that over 4,000 reduction-in-force notices had been dispatched; on Wednesday, Vought mentioned that the total job reductions would likely exceed “10,000.“
However, a federal judge on Wednesday afternoon temporarily halted the administration from terminating government employees.
