President Donald Trump’s proposed budget could prevent the Purple Line from receiving the $900 million in federal funds that state officials have long planned to spend on the project.
Trump’s budget outline released Thursday includes a line that states only transit projects “with existing full funding grant agreements in place” will receive federal funds under the Federal Transit Administration’s “New Starts” program.
About $900 million from that program had been requested for the Purple Line, but the full funding grant agreement has not been signed due to an ongoing lawsuit. The agreement was scheduled to be signed Aug. 4, but was delayed indefinitely after U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon revoked the project’s federal approval the day before.
“We won’t know if there’s an impact to the Purple Line until a final budget is passed by Congress and the appropriations process is complete,” Erin Henson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Transportation, said in an email Thursday.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Andrew Metcalf over at the Bethesda Magazine