Gov. Kathy Hochul to meet with President Donald Trump, press mass transit, infrastructure

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump Friday over New York’s increasing need for federal aid for mass transit and infrastructure, even as Hochul’s Democratic Party takes a harder line against the Republican president.

“I said I wanted to carry on the conversation that we had in the Oval Office a couple weeks ago,” Hochul told reporters Thursday, a day after she requested the meeting. “I have a lot on my agenda.”

She said she will again push for more federal funding for several infrastructure projects including the Penn Station rail hub to which massive federal aid would normally flow.

She said she will also push for billions of dollars in federal aid to help fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital program and support for the state’s congestion pricing program that was supposed to fund it. Congestion pricing began in January and charges a fee to enter the most congested part of Manhattan during the busiest hours to reduce traffic, improve air quality and combat emissions that contribute to global warming.

Trump, however, has said he opposes the program after hearing opposition to the fees from New Jersey Republican officials.

Hochul said she also wants to talk to Trump about the trade war he began with Canada that threatens energy and commerce from Canada, a major trade partner with New York.

“So,” Hochul said, “we’ll have quite an agenda.”

But Hochul has also been increasingly critical of Trump. Hochul has blasted the Trump administration’s deep funding cuts in Washington, which may include Social Security essential to New Yorkers; and Medicaid, which provides funding for some struggling New York hospitals.

On Wednesday, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, went to Albany to meet Republicans in the Legislature for a news conference to support Trump’s plan for mass deportation of immigrants. Homan was, instead, hounded by protesters and Democrats chanting, “No hate! No fear!” that was carried in TV news and on social media.

“I wasn’t paying attention to him,” Hochul said Thursday.

Homan stood with Republicans in the minority conferences of the Senate and Assembly calling on New York to require law enforcement to provide full support for raids by immigration officials. Republicans in the Legislature, however, couldn’t pass such a measure. Under Albany’s rules, the majority party controls what legislation receives floor votes.

Hochul said the state will continue its policy of allowing state police to work with federal immigration agents, but only to apprehend dangerous criminals or individuals named in court-ordered warrants. She said state police won’t assist Trump’s mass deportation.

“We’re not going to let people come here and separate families,” Hochul said. “We’re not going to separate mothers from children like the last time Donald Trump was president. We’re going to continue to stand up.”