Rep. Mike Lawler bragged about acquiring $32 million in federally funded initiatives for his suburban Westchester County-based district within the days earlier than final November’s election.
However after he received a formidable reelection victory for a second two-year time period, Lawler voted for a Republican spending invoice that disregarded the grants for these neighborhood initiatives.
Now the grants — from $4.5 million for the Rockland County Sheriff’s Workplace to $2.25 million to repair water tanks in Pleasantville — are in legislative limbo, with no means of understanding when or if they are going to ever win approval.
Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, a Democrat who’s working to unseat Lawler in 2026, mentioned communities in her district had been shocked to seek out out the rug was pulled out from underneath them for essential native priorities.
“We need representatives who will actually fight for our community, not just take credit for funding that they promise to deliver and then rip away,” Davidson mentioned.
A spokesperson for Lawler didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The initiatives had been amongst $15 billion in U.S. funding to native initiatives, typically derided as “earmarks,” that Lawler and different lawmakers hoped can be included in a spending invoice to be handed in 2025.
As a substitute, Republicans led by President Trump and Home Speaker Mike Johnson opted to push for a stripped-down stopgap spending invoice to fund the federal government till September.
That transfer averted a authorities shutdown when Sen. Chuck Schumer controversially allowed it to move the Senate.
Nevertheless it left initiatives like those touted by Lawler out within the chilly.
Among the many initiatives had been $4.5 million for brand new autos and a “reality-based public safety training facility” for the Rockland sheriff; $2.25 million to repair Pleasantville’s leaking 1 million gallon water storage tanks; $5 million for pedestrian security enhancements in Ramapo; $4 million to broaden Route 45 in New Sq., and $520,000 to renovate the Peekskill police headquarters
Lawler makes little secret of his plan to run in opposition to Gov. Hochul in 2026, and polls recommend he may have a good likelihood after she dramatically underperformed Democratic expectations in 2022.
He portrays himself as a pacesetter among the many small group of comparatively reasonable suburban Republicans in Congress. He’s one among simply three GOP lawmakers who received election in 2024 in districts that President Trump misplaced to Democrat Kamala Harris.
Lawler says he can work throughout social gathering strains and win assist inside the Trump administration to attain assist for native priorities in his prosperous and well-educated swing district, which is taken into account a key battleground within the 2026 midterms.
Democrats name Lawler little greater than a fig leaf for Trump’s extremist insurance policies with little affect in GOP resolution making.
Initially Printed: March 31, 2025 at 5:20 PM EDT
