Rep. Mike Lawler bragged about obtaining $32 million in federally funded projects for his suburban Westchester County-based district in the days before last November’s election.
But after he won an impressive reelection victory for a second two-year term, Lawler voted for a Republican spending bill that left out the grants for those community projects.
Now the grants — from $4.5 million for the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office to $2.25 million to fix water tanks in Pleasantville — are in legislative limbo, with no way of knowing when or if they will ever win approval.
Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, a Democrat who is running to unseat Lawler in 2026, said communities in her district were shocked to find out the rug was pulled out from under them for important local 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 said.
A Lawler spokesman said the funding proposals would be resubmitting for the coming 2026 fiscal year budget and predicted they would be “seamlessly” approved.
“Congressman Lawler is confident these projects will be funded as we move forward.” said Ciro Riccardi, the spokesman.
The projects were among $15 billion in U.S. funding to local projects, sometimes derided as “earmarks,” that Lawler and other lawmakers hoped would be included in a spending bill to be passed in 2025.
Instead, Republicans led by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson opted to push for a stripped-down stopgap spending bill to fund the government until September.
That move averted a government shutdown when Sen. Chuck Schumer controversially allowed it to pass the Senate.
But it left projects like the ones touted by Lawler out in the cold.
Among the projects were $4.5 million for new vehicles and a “reality-based public safety training facility” for the Rockland sheriff; $2.25 million to fix Pleasantville’s leaking 1 million gallon water storage tanks; $5 million for pedestrian safety improvements in Ramapo; $4 million to expand Route 45 in New Square, and $520,000 to renovate the Peekskill police headquarters
Lawler makes little secret of his plan to run against Gov. Hochul in 2026, and polls suggest he could have a decent chance after she underperformed Democratic expectations in 2022.
He portrays himself as a leader among the small group of relatively moderate suburban Republicans in Congress. He is one of just three GOP lawmakers who won election in 2024 in districts that President Trump lost to Democrat Kamala Harris.
Lawler says he can work across party lines and win support within the Trump administration to score support for local priorities in his affluent and well-educated swing district, which is considered a key battleground in the 2026 midterms.
Democrats call Lawler little more than a fig leaf for Trump’s extremist policies with little influence in GOP decision making.
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