Billions in federal funding for the Second Avenue Subway is now in jeopardy.
MTA
New York State and the MTA followed through on their threat to sue the Trump administration on Tuesday — taking legal action to force the feds to unfreeze nearly $60 million in previously committed funding for the Second Avenue Subway’s East Harlem expansion, which they have withheld since October.
The suit, filed in the Federal Court of Claims on Tuesday, argues that the federal government breached a contract it previously inked with the MTA. They argue that the continued funding freeze could delay the $7 billion effort to extend the Q line from 96th Street to 125th Street in East Harlem by preventing the MTA from awarding its next contract for the excavation of two new stations at 106th and 125th Streets.
Attorneys for the state and MTA are asking for an “expedited motion for partial summary judgment.”
“This Court can quickly resolve the MTA’s claim for breach based on DOT’s failure to reimburse $58,643,339.10, and respectfully should do so on an expedited motion for partial summary judgment,” the suit reads. “If funding is not immediately resumed, it risks creating a “domino effect” of cascading delays and inflated costs.”
They are asking both for the funding to be unfrozen and for “other consequential damages that DOT’s suspension has caused.”
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced the legal action while testifying at a City Council preliminary budget hearing on Tuesday morning.
“The MTA has just filed a lawsuit against the federal government to restore funding for the Second Avenue Subway,” Lieber said. “Everybody knows the Trump administration has been withholding money for New York infrastructure projects. We intend to get every cent of what has been promised, and frankly, based on the agreements, what’s owed to New Yorkers. And we’re not afraid to fight for it in court.”
Governor Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber in the Second Avenue Subway tunnel in November 2021.Marc A. Hermann / MTA
The suit comes after the MTA boss had threatened legal action during the agency’s most recent board meeting last month.
Roughly $3.4 billion of the $6.9 billion project is due to come from the federal government. However, Trump’s Department of Transportation froze that funding in October, claiming the need to review the MTA’s contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses to gauge its compliance with new rules around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Lieber has repeatedly said that the MTA has answered all of the federal DOT’s questions about its contracting practices.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a statement, compared new suit to the pair of legal actions brought by the states of New York and New Jersey and the Gateway Development Commission seeking to unfreeze funding for the Gateway Tunnel project between the Empire and Garden States.
Those suits are both still ongoing, but the former was successful in restoring $235 million in federal funding for the $16 billion project via a temporary restraining order.
“We told Donald Trump that if he did not restore the funding for this project, we’d see him in court. Today, we are doing just that,” Hochul said. “Just like Gateway, Donald Trump has two options: restore the money now, or wait for a judge to force him to.”
Lieber projected confidence that the MTA will be successful in court. He referenced the agency’s recent victory in Manhattan federal court, which prevented the Trump administration from shutting down congestion pricing.