{"id":122169,"date":"2026-02-04T01:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/122169\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T01:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:57:26","slug":"new-york-and-new-jersey-file-suit-over-gateway-tunnel-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/122169\/","title":{"rendered":"New York and New Jersey file suit over Gateway tunnel funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York and New Jersey filed suit against the Trump administration late Tuesday, demanding the full restoration of federal funds for construction of the Gateway Project<\/a>\u2018s Hudson River Tunnel.<\/p>\n

The $16 billion tunnel project, which would double the number of rail lines between New Jersey and New York Penn Station, is set to run out of funds on Friday<\/a>, following a months-long refusal by the Trump administration to distribute project funds dedicated by Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing this project to stop would put one of the country\u2019s most heavily used transit corridors at risk,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cOur tunnels are already under strain, and losing this project could be disastrous for commuters, workers, and our regional economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AG said the suit intended to halt a shutdown \u201cthat would ripple far beyond New York and New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal money is earmarked to cover more than two-thirds of the tunnel\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n

Construction of the tunnel \u2014 the centerpiece of the broader Gateway project to modernize and expand rail lines between the Jersey Meadowlands and midtown Manhattan \u2014 is expected to create some 70,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

Work on the tunnel has been ongoing since the feds first froze funds in October, and a massive tunnel-boring machine is standing by, ready to start digging through bedrock under Jersey City.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Gateway tunnel is under construction in Manhattan that will connect the new $18 billion Hudson River rail tunnel to New York Penn Station on Thursday, Oct. 2, in New York. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey)<\/p>\n

But Gateway officials said last week<\/a> the work would come to a halt indefinitely on Friday if the feds don\u2019t let the congressional dollars flow \u2014 a stoppage that will endanger the project and axe about 1,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

The states\u2019 eleventh-hour suit comes a day after the Gateway Development Commission \u2014 the bi-state body tasked with overseeing the tunnel\u2019s construction \u2014 filed its own suit<\/a> in the Court of Federal Claims, accusing the Trump administration of breach of contract for withholding the funds.<\/p>\n

The states\u2019 suit, filed Tuesday, similarly argues the funding hold is illegitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding freeze is not based on any legitimate compliance concern but instead reflects an unlawful, politically motivated decision,\u201d James\u2019 office said in a statement. \u201cIn public statements, including statements made by the president himself, the administration has been explicit that the suspension of funding is a brazen act of political retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

James and Acting N.J. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport are asking the court to rule the funding interference is illegal, and to order the resumption of funding fast enough to keep work from stopping.<\/p>\n

Regardless of illegality, the Trump administration\u2019s justifications for intercepting the funds have not been consistent.<\/p>\n

The freeze was first announced in the\u00a0early hours of last year\u2019s federal government shutdown<\/a>, over \u201cunconstitutional DEI principles\u201d in the selection of contractors.<\/p>\n

Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed at that time the project \u2014 along with the MTA\u2019s long-awaited Second Avenue subway extension \u2014 was no longer in compliance with contracting rules the government had just changed.<\/p>\n

Duffy told reporters<\/a> his department was \u201cnot trying to shut down these projects \u2014 to the contrary, we\u2019re trying to make sure these projects move forward, move forward fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

But within weeks, President Trump took to gloating he\u2019d \u201cterminated\u201d the project for good \u2014not because of contracting rules, but because it was a favorite of New York Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBillions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get \u2014 it\u2019s terminated,\u201d the president said in October<\/a>. \u201cTell him, \u2018It\u2019s terminated\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, USDOT continued to demand GDC get into compliance with its new contracting rules, something GDC CEO Tom Prendergast said last week had been accomplished.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have promptly responded to any and all requests to demonstrate the project is compliant,\u201d Prendergast said last Tuesday.<\/p>\n

When the Daily News asked the USDOT last week if that was true \u2014 and, if so, why Gateway still had no access to the congressional funds \u2014 a spokesperson directed the inquiry to the White House.<\/p>\n

White House spokesman Kush Desai then offered a third reason for the ransom \u2014 a lack of Democratic fealty to the Trump administration\u2019s historically unpopular immigration efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Chuck Schumer and Democrats who are standing in the way of a deal for the Gateway Tunnel Project by refusing to negotiate with the Trump administration,\u201d Desai claimed. \u201cThere is nothing stopping Democrats from prioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens and getting this project back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York and New Jersey filed suit against the Trump administration late Tuesday, demanding the full restoration of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,10,12,63,608],"class_list":["post-122169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}