Republican senators are balking at the Trump administration’s decision to cut off transportation funding to Democratic “blue states” such as New York and Massachusetts during the government shutdown, warning that freezing funds as an apparent act of political retaliation is not appropriate.

Republican senators are unified in the view that Democrats are wrong to hold government funding hostage in order to win major health policy concessions, but they feel uncomfortable about halting transportation funding to certain states because they are represented by Democrats in Washington.

Republican members of the Appropriations Committee, in particular, argue that funding decisions should be made on the basis of merit. They think that quashing projects to extract political vengeance, even during the partisan shutdown fight, is a bad idea.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said targeting blue states such as New York by threatening to cut off funding for projects that have been already approved and funded, such as the construction of a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River to facilitate travel and commerce between Manhattan and New Jersey, will hurt people in those states regardless of their own political views.

“You show me one blue state in America where you don’t have pockets, maybe even big pockets, of Republicans, of conservatives, of MAGA people, of pro-Trump. Do we not care about them?” she said.

“Are we just saying, ‘If you don’t like it, you should move to a place where you’ve got a Republican governor?’” she added. “It makes no sense. Why are we being punitive? It’s hard enough when the government is not operating as it should be. Let’s not be punitive to Americans just to score political points.”

Murkowski made her comments after President Trump said last week that his administration had “terminated” the rail tunnel under the Hudson, a massive $16 billion construction job known as the Gateway Project.

White House budget director Russell Vought followed Trump’s threat by........

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