Just months after facing backlash for touting federal funding she had opposed, Democratic New York Rep. Laura Gillen once again stood smiling behind a massive cutout check tied to funding she voted against.
Gillen, a freshman lawmaker facing a potentially tough reelection contest in a swing seat on Long Island, celebrated$500,000 in federal funding for a local fire department that she had personally requested in this year’s appropriations process. What she left out of her Feb. 13 remarks is that she fiercely opposed the spending bill containing the project funding when it hit the House floor.
Gillen, like virtually all House Democrats, voted against a sweeping government spending package funding in early February, citing opposition to funding federal immigration enforcement. Just 21 Democrats broke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to back the package.
“We must hold the line and exert our power to get real, meaningful reforms of ICE immediately,” Gillen wrote on X regarding her “no” vote. “The CR does nothing to accomplish those goals and I therefore could not vote for it.”
The funding package included Gillen’s $500,000 earmark for renovations and structural repairs to the Garden City Firehouse. The Long Island Democrat also secured another $8 million in community project funding within the measure, which she ultimately voted against.
Gillen still held a press conference ten days later lauding her success in securing the project funding for her district.
“For nearly 12 years, the Garden City Firehouse has sought critical funding to renovate its 100-year-old station and meet the needs of a modern firefighting force,” Gillen wrote on Facebook. “I’m proud to have secured this essential funding to modernize the firehouse, strengthen emergency response and support the brave men and women who protect our community every day.”
A spokesperson for Gillen did not respond to a request for comment regarding her vote against the funding.
Democratic lawmakers — particularly those seeking reelection in battleground House seats — have routinely takencredit for community project funding they voted against during the second Trump administration.
In November, Gillen claimed credit for $938,000 in federal funding for another fire department in her district despite opposing the spending bill containing the money.
“I am just so thrilled to secure this funding,” Gillen said at a press conference outside the Bellrose Fire Department.
She participated in a photo-op with local officials while holding a large cardboard check representing the nearly $1 million award to upgrade the department’s aging fire trucks. It is unclear whether the officials were aware that Gillen voted against the project funding whose “check” she held in her hands.
The Nassau County Republican Committee slammed the event as “shameless” in a statement on X.
“She voted NO on the fire truck,” the group wrote. “Then showed up like she paid for it.”
Democratic New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, who represents another Long Island seat bordering Gillen’s, also took a victory lap for securing $17 million in community project funding during this year’s appropriations process.
“I’m always trying to bring money back to my district, and in the past couple of weeks I’ve had some new success doing just that,” the New York Democrat wrote in an op-ed Wednesday for the New York-based Long Island Herald.
Suozzi did not disclose that he voted against a spending bill containing more than $5 million of the funding.
Both Long Island Democrats complained about high taxes while touting the taxpayer-funded projects despite voting against President Donald Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts, formerly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which enacted an array of new tax cuts and expanded existing benefits.
“In the months ahead I’ll propose a dramatic change to the federal tax code to try and bring more of New Yorkers’ money back to New York, to reduce our tax burden,” Suozzi wrote.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, slammed Gillen and Suozzi for boasting to their constituents about local project funding they voted against.
“Two-faced Tom Suozzi and serial freeloader Laura Gillen are blatantly taking credit for critical funding they tried to block,” NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Republicans delivered this funding, not Suozzi and Gillen. We’ll make sure voters know it.”
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