Morning Headlines: Federal Spending Freeze Sparks Confusion, Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez Faces Sentencing, and Proposed Tax Break for Lead Pipe Filtration

Speaker 1: Welcome to NYC NOW, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Wednesday, January 29th. Here's the morning headlines from David Furst.

David Furst: News of a federal spending freeze is prompting confusion and backlash in New York. WNYC's Jimmy Vielkind reports.

Jimmy Vielkind: A federal judge is blocking a Trump administration directive to end federal payments to public programs, but State Attorney General Letitia James says New York got locked out of a system to get reimbursed for the Medicaid health program even before the directive could go into effect. James is among 20 attorneys general who are suing.

Letitia James: When Congress dedicates funding for a program, the president cannot pull that funding on a whim.

Jimmy Vielkind: Governor Kathy Hochul says her administration is still evaluating.

Governor Kathy Hochul: I'm not playing whack-a-mole with every single initiative that comes out of Washington. I have to govern a state.

Jimmy Vielkind: The White House says the freeze will stop taxpayer dollars from funding diversity and environmental initiatives that Trump opposes.

David Furst: Former New Jersey Senator, Bob Menendez, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Manhattan federal court today. WNYC's Nancy Solomon reports. He was convicted last year on 16 counts of bribery, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent.

Nancy Solomon: The scheme involved a deal with Egypt, which gave a New Jersey businessman a lucrative monopoly to certify halal meat imports. In exchange, Menendez helped get a weapons deal for Egypt. A wealthy real estate developer who had invested in the halal business bribed the senator with gold bars and envelopes full of cash. The senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, is also charged, but her trial has been delayed until March due to her health. The senator resigned last August. Prosecutors are asking for a 15 year sentence. The Menendez defense team says that would, in effect, be a life sentence for the 71 year old, and is asking for leniency.

David Furst: There's an estimated 250,000 buildings in New York City served by lead pipes or suspected lead pipes. Now, tenants in those buildings could get help purchasing water filtration systems. Bronx Representative, Ritchie Torres, is introducing a new bill today providing a 20% tax break toward the filters. Joshua Kleinberg is with the New York League of Conservation Voters. He says lead pipes are a non-partisan problem.

Joshua Kleinberg: Lead is universally disapproved of by everyone in this country. This is something I would think might be palatable across the aisle considering that it's voluntary and considering that it addresses a very important issue that red states and blue states are equally concerned about.

David Furst: The Biden administration set a 10-year deadline for all property owners to remove lead water lines, but it's unclear if President Trump will maintain that order. 41 degrees going up to 47 today.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This is NYC NOW from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this afternoon.

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