PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s congressional delegation fears that President Trump’s executive orders could hold up the release of $600 million in federal funding for Rhode Island transportation projects, including $220 million to build a new Washington Bridge westbound on Interstate 195 West.
The four Democrats representing Rhode Island — US Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and US Representatives Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo — wrote to the Office of Management and Budget’s acting director, urging him to confirm that the funds will be released to the state.
“The Trump administration has needlessly halted work to advance the release of funding appropriated by Congress and competitively awarded for projects in the State of Rhode Island and elsewhere,” the letter says. “In particular, we are alarmed that the Administration is blocking the release of over $600 million in competitive grant funding for more than ten Rhode Island transportation projects.”
Late Monday night, the Trump administration paused all federal loans and grants, effective at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted, the Associated Press reported. The memo sent by the White House Office of Management and Budget said the pause “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals,” such as Medicaid and Social Security payments.
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It was not immediately clear if Trump had actually blocked funding to any Rhode Island bridge projects. In an interview on WPRO radio last week, RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said he had been assured that Trump’s executive order targeting green energy projects would not affect “boilerplate” bridge and highway projects like the Washington Bridge.
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“The pause only applies to funds supporting programs, projects or activities that may be implicated by the policy, basically the Green New Deal,” Alviti said on the radio.
He said both the Washington Bridge project and another project to fix 15 bridges on Interstate 95 are not included.
“These projects would be exempt from that presidential order,” Alviti said.
Alviti did not respond to requests for an interview from the Globe on Monday. His office sent a copy of guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, which says the pause of Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure and Jobs Act funding, two Biden-era laws passed by Congress, applies on only to certain green energy projects. Trump’s executive order, one of dozens he signed on Inauguration Day, seeks to unravel Biden’s green energy policies.
Asked to explain the delegation’s letter, Chip Unruh, a spokesperson in Reed’s office, said, “The Trump administration has sent unclear and mixed signals about the fate of transportation projects nationwide where funds have been awarded but not yet obligated. This is not just a Rhode Island issue. A number of offices are seeking clarity, which the administration still hasn’t provided.”
Unruh said Trump or one of his aides needs to come out and say “I’m not cancelling awarded Biden era projects,” but that has not happened.
“Separate from its so-called ‘green new deal’ funding pause, the Trump administration has halted all progress towards getting grant agreements in place and funding obligated for competitively awarded projects,” he said. “This affects the Washington Bridge and a number of other projects in Rhode Island, as highlighted in the delegation’s letter, and applies to projects where funds have not yet been obligated, in all states.”
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Unruh provided a quote reported by Politico in which Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, “said her understanding is that money from formula and discretionary grant programs that has ‘already been awarded’ would not be affected, but noted there is ‘some confusion,’” Politico reported.
The White House did not immediately comment on Monday.
The congressional delegation said it was “alarmed” that the Trump executive orders would block release of more than $600 million in federal funding for Rhode Island transportation projects, including $220 million for the I-195 Washington Bridge, which has been partially closed since December 2023 due to a “catastrophic failure.”
Also, the delegation said it’s concerned about more than $250 million approved for bridges along Rhode Island’s busy Interstate 95 corridor. The 15 bridges cited in the letter are in Providence, Cranston, and Warwick, including a series of bridges where Route 10 meets I-95 in Cranston, according to a map included in a state Department of Transportation grant application.
Nine of the bridges are in “poor” condition, four of the bridges are in “fair” condition but approaching “poor” condition, and two of the bridges in “fair” condition, according to the grant application.
The Department of Transportation has proposed combining those projects, saying that would “streamline improvements to a transit corridor that sees over 185,000 vehicles, roughly 9,000 trucks and heavy freight vehicles daily.”
The letter from the congressional delegation says those projects have already been evaluated and selected in a competitive process.
“Lingering uncertainty about the status of funding threatens to disrupt work on these essential infrastructure projects, which could have negative ramifications for state and local budgets, preventing projects from being completed on time, threatening good-paying jobs, and harming our economy,” they wrote.
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The delegation asked Matthew Vaeth, the OMB’s acting director, to confirm that all of those funds will be released to the state.
See more coverage of the Washington Bridge closure.
This article has been updated with information about the pause on Federal grants and loans.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @FitzProv. Steph Machado can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @StephMachado.