Army Corps of Engineers pausing $11 billion in projects over shutdown: Vought
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will immediately pause and consider canceling more than $11 billion in projects due to the government shutdown, Trump administration budget chief Russell Vought said Friday.
“The Democratic shutdown has depleted the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage multibillion-dollar projects,” Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in an X post.
Vought said the paused funds were for “lower priority projects” in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore.
Army Corps of Engineers, which provides a wide range of public engineering services and involves multiple individuals 37,000 civilians and soldiers did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Vought’s post.
Vought is known as the co-author of the guide to the right-wing government’s major overhaul. Project 2025He was the first to announce federal layoffs and funding pauses that the Trump administration said were consequences of the shutdown.
President Donald Trump and Vought have also described cutting congressional funding as an “opportunity” to break federal bureaucracy. Trump has repeatedly said only Democrats’ priorities are being targeted.
On the day the shutdown began, Vought announced that the administration was freezing nearly $18 billion for two major infrastructure projects in New York City and canceling nearly $8 billion more for climate-related projects in Democratic-leaning states.
Two days later, Vought said the administration was freezing another $2.1 billion in Transportation Department funding for the Chicago transit system.
The White House also insisted that the shutdown would result in the layoffs of thousands of federal employees.
The administration said more than 4,000 reduction-in-force notices were issued last week; On Wednesday, Vought said total layoffs would likely be “north of 10,000.”
But on Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from laying off government workers.
