Visits: 13
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that he will meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday in Washington to discuss coronavirus response efforts and plans to jumpstart the economy, including ideas for large-scale infrastructure projects.
The Democratic governor, whose state has reported a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall amid the pandemic, announced the meeting Tuesday during remarks at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan.
“I’m going to go to Washington tomorrow, scheduled to meet with the president to talk about a number of things, but this is one of the things I want to talk to the president about,” Cuomo said at the press conference. “You want to restart the economy? You want to reopen the economy? Let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work and let’s make America better. It is common sense.”
Cuomo laid out a number of infrastructure proposals, including an expansion of New York City’s Subway tunnels, while noting that federal approval would be required for the plans to move forward.
New York’s state and city governments are “hard-stretched,” Cuomo said at the press conference. “That’s why I think the real answer is, the federal government has to step up and provide state and local aid.”
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Cuomo’s announcement. The president was scheduled to travel to central Florida on Wednesday to watch an astronaut launch at the Kennedy Space Center, the White House said over the weekend.
Trump and Cuomo previously met in April in the White House, where they agreed to work toward doubling New York’s rate of testing for the virus.
The Empire State, which was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., has seen a steady decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks. Some areas of the state have begun lifting their strict social distancing rules, while other regions, especially the New York metropolitan area, are moving more slowly.
Cuomo warned Tuesday that the economy is not going to “just bounce back” from the damage caused by the pandemic.
“You’re going to see pain in this new economy and let’s start to dissipate that and let’s start to deal with that now,” he said.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.