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 exhausted the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage billions of dollars of projects,” Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in an X article.
The suspended funds are for “lower priority projects” in cities like New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore, Vought said.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which provides a wide range of public engineering services and includes more than 37,000 civilians and Soldiers, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Vought’s post.
Vought, co-author of the right-wing playbook for a major government overhaul known as Project 2025, was the first to announce federal layoffs and funding pauses that the Trump administration says are consequences of the shutdown.
President Donald Trump and Vought also described Congress’ lack of funding as an “opportunity” to cut federal bureaucracy. Trump has repeatedly said that only Democrats’ priorities are being targeted.
The day the shutdown began, Vought announced that the administration was freezing about $18 billion for two major infrastructure projects in New York and canceling about $8 billion more for climate-related projects in Democratic-leaning states.
Two days later, Vought said the administration had frozen another $2.1 billion in Department of Transportation funding for Chicago’s transit system.
The White House also insisted the shutdown would result in thousands of federal workers being laid off.
The administration said last week that more than 4,000 reduction-in-force notices had been issued; On Wednesday, Vought said the total job cuts would likely end up being “north of 10,000.”
But a federal judge on Wednesday afternoon temporarily barred the administration from firing civil servants.
