Letters

Your article “Federal Shutdown Deal Kills Some Funding Hopes for Local Projects” [27east.com, March 20] is both inaccurate and misleading, and demands immediate correction.

Chief among the errors is your misuse of the word “cut.” In doing so, you’ve essentially blamed the Easter Bunny for Santa not answering the request from someone’s wish list.

A “cut” means a reduction from an enacted, authorized funding level — one passed by Congress and signed into law. What you’ve described instead is the omission of an unapproved request that never made it into any official legislation. The project in question was never funded to begin with — and, thus, nothing was “cut.”

Senator Chuck Schumer’s request for Riverside sewer project funding was introduced in the Senate but never advanced. It was not included in any House bill and never became law. To say it was “cut” from a 99-page, stopgap funding bill designed to prevent a government shutdown is simply false.

Making matters worse, your flawed reporting was followed by a partisan letter from Mike Anthony, a former Democratic Committee chair, who disingenuously tried to blame me for the exclusion of a funding request championed — and ultimately dropped — by members of his own party [“Turned His Back,” Letters, April 10]. Senator Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand both voted for the final spending bill, which excluded the earmark they originally sought. The facts speak for themselves.

The truth is, efforts to fund critical Long Island projects were stalled long before the final fiscal year 2025 funding vote. With my support, the Republican-led House passed seven appropriations bills, including six projects in my district totaling $9.6 million. Yet, those efforts died in 2024 in the then-Democrat-controlled Senate, which failed to pass a single appropriations bill in return.

Moreover, Mr. Anthony conveniently omits that the Riverside project is currently tied up in litigation, raising urgent environmental concerns affecting the Peconic River estuary and surrounding communities.

Let’s stick to the facts and stop spinning fiction for political gain.

Nick LaLota

U.S. Representative

1st Congressional District