“Pelosi’s subway” pulled from COVID stimulus package.

Republicans said extension funding had nothing to do with virus

So long, “Nancy Pelosi’s subway”; we hardly knew ye.

An estimated $141 million in the latest COVID-19 stimulus package to help extend BART service through downtown San Jose — which Republicans misleadingly tied to the House speaker as they painted the $1.9 trillion package as being stuffed with pork — has been removed from the bill.

On Tuesday, Pelosi’s staff told CNN, which first reported the funding had been withdrawn, that the Senate parliamentarian ruled the BART project was not eligible for stimulus funding because it was receiving money under a pilot program. Democrats also are removing

a $1.5 million allocation for a bridge in New York that similarly became the subject of ridicule by Republicans.

The parliamentarian’s ruling appears to preserve stimulus funding for other Bay Area projects, including an estimated $47 million for Caltrain’s electrification work, $77 million to increase BART’s capacity and $23 million for the Muni Metro extension to San Francisco Chinatown — a subway line that is actually in Pelosi’s district.

South Bay leaders reacted to the decision with disappointment but said the $6.9 billion BART project would stay on track nonetheless. Losing out on the stimulus funding, which represented about 2% of the extension’s total cost, “does not affect viability or schedule,” said Bernice Alaniz, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which is building the four-station project scheduled to open by 2030.

The BART extension was among several transit projects around the Bay Area and across the country that were set to receive more than $1 billion combined from the stimulus.

Republicans charged that the spending had nothing to do with COVID-19. The South Bay BART extension drew particular ire over the past week, with several GOP members of Congress christening it “Nancy Pelosi’s subway” in tweets and public statements, even though it isn’t in her district. Others characterized it as a giveaway to the tech industry.

Supporters of the funding said it would help ensure big infrastructure projects weren’t disrupted by the pandemic. The projects already were slated to receive far more federal money from the U.S. Department of Transportation before COVID-19 struck but also are being funded from local sources that could come up short if the economy tanks.

The BART extension is expected to receive more than $1.7 billion under the Department of Transportation’s Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program.