WASHINGTON – The trillion-dollar spending deal just reached by congressional negotiators includes a $68 million reimbursement for local law enforcement for protecting President Trump and his family — with the largest chunk going to the Big Apple, city officials said Monday.
The appropriated funds will cover past security costs amassed during Trump’s presidential transition, including when he spent weeks interviewing cabinet candidates at his Fifth Avenue skyscraper in Manhattan, a Democratic congressional aide told The Post.
A considerable portion of the $68 million will go to the NYPD, which spent more than $2 million a week to protect Trump and his family between Election Day and the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration, city officials said.
“We don’t yet know how the $68 [million] will break down among the localities, but it’s safe to assume we’ll get the majority since our costs are the greatest,” a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio told The Post.
New York City spent $24 million overall to protect Trump during his transition.
“We are getting what we are owed,” de Blasio said in a statement. “That’s good news for our city and the hard working police officers faced with this unprecedented security challenge.”
According to de Blasio’s office, the NYPD continues to spend as much as $146,000 a day to secure Trump Tower, where First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron are living until the 10-year-old completes this school year.
It’s unclear when any reimbursement for those additional funds may be made.
New York Rep. Nita Lowey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee who lobbied for the funds, praised the current reimbursement, saying law-enforcement agencies have “performed admirably, in coordination with U.S. Secret Service” to protect the First Family.
“I am very pleased New York taxpayers will not be on the hook for these critical and necessary expenses,” Lowey said.
Congressman José Serrano (D-Bronx) said the funds ensure that New York City “does not have to reduce resources elsewhere in order to protect Trump Tower.”
The $68 million appropriation is included in a must-pass omnibus spending package that will fund the government through the remainder of fiscal 2017, which ends Sept. 30.
In addition to the money for New York City, it includes reimbursement for Trump’s travel to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida since becoming president.
The bill does not include money for the wall that Trump promised to construct along the U.S.-Mexico border, nor does it include cuts to Planned Parenthood’s federal funding.
Republicans had sought to include both provisions but ultimately backed away with the threat of a government shutdown looming.
Congress is expected to vote on the bill this week before their short-term extension expires at midnight Friday.