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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Delaware lawmakers are halting an expansion project at Legislative Hall in Dover after suffering millions of dollars in federal funding freezes from the Trump administration, including $38 million in health care dollars last week.
Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania joined a coalition of states and Washington, D.C. in suing the Trump administration this week after they were notified about the cuts.
In a joint statement, the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee said they were dropping the project updating the state Capitol building for the time being.
“In the coming months, lawmakers will be faced with tough decisions about how to balance our annual budget. We are committed to funding critical programs that benefit our students, our seniors, our veterans, and every day families,” the statement said. “We hope to revisit the expansion project soon.”
The project’s total estimated cost in a 2023 feasibility study was $122 million, but current predictions are about 3% higher than that. The project got $10 million of funding in this fiscal year’s budget; and the Office of Management and Budget had requested $50 million for fiscal year 2026, which included part of the Legislative Hall expansion and part of constructing the adjacent parking garage and connecting tunnel. The parking garage, which lawmakers said has already been funded, is still expected to move forward. Construction is set to begin in July without the tunnel. The parking garage was estimated to have cost $33 million at the February meeting of the Legislative Building Committee.






