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NYC should be repaid $25 million for Trump security, lawmakers say

Posted at 1:45 PM, Mar 08, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-08 13:45:15-05

Lawmakers want to make sure New York City is reimbursed for the $25 million it cost to protect President Trump between the election and the inauguration.

Sixteen members of the House, including three Republicans, wrote to the Appropriations Committee to ask that the city be repaid for the money it spent securing Trump Tower.

The lawmakers also asked that funding be set aside for “future costs associated with President Trump’s protection” in New York. First lady Melania Trump and the couple’s 10-year-old son, Barron, expect to stay there at least through the school year.

In the letter, dated Tuesday, the lawmakers called the scale of the security needed to protect Trump Tower “unprecedented.”

The New York Police Department spent $24 million, or $308,000 per day, to secure Trump and his family during the transition, according to James O’Neill, the New York police commissioner. The fire department spent an additional $1.7 million.

Trump Tower, in midtown Manhattan, is one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the world.

In a letter to lawmakers last month, O’Neill also estimated that the NYPD would continue to spend as much as $146,000 a day protecting the first lady and her son. And he said those costs would spike whenever the president was in town.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters in December that the security efforts were a “very substantial undertaking.”

Local governments are usually reimbursed for at least some of the security costs during a presidential transition.

Illinois received about $2 million for protection costs during President Obama’s transition, according to the House Appropriations Committee. It’s not clear what the state asked for.

New York officials will need to file requests through federal agencies including the FBI and Secret Service. Those agencies will determine how much New York is repaid. The White House can also ask for further reimbursement for the city.

A spokeswoman for the Appropriations Committee said the details of repayment for Trump Tower-related security costs have yet to be determined.