{"id":125811,"date":"2026-02-07T00:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125811\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:03:20","slug":"gateway-project-construction-stops-after-schumer-rejects-trump-deal-to-release-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125811\/","title":{"rendered":"Gateway Project construction stops after Schumer rejects Trump deal to release funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive Gateway tunnel project came to a screeching halt at 5 p.m. Friday \u2014 a day after it was revealed that President Trump offered to pony up the $16 billion in federal funds<\/a> in exchange for renaming New York\u2019s Penn Station and Washington\u2019s Dulles International Airport after him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump had frozen\u00a0the funding for the infrastructure project \u2014 which would construct a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey to New York City \u2014 on the first day of the government shutdown in October, during which Democrats held up federal funding for a record 43 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president then offered to restore the funds during negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a source familiar with the discussion told The Post.<\/p>\n

President Trump has requested Dulles Airport and Penn Station to be renamed after him during negotiations to release $16B in funds for the Gateway Project Aaron Schwartz \u2013 Pool via CNP\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

While Sen. Schumer reportedly told the President that he didn\u2019t have the authority to rename Penn Station after him, a source close to both men says that \u201cTrump Station\u201d does have a bit of a ring to it. Michael Brochstein\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

However, Schumer reportedly told Trump that he didn\u2019t have the authority to fulfill the unusual request, according to\u00a0CNN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The work stoppage for the tunnel slated to connect New Jersey and New York by 2035 has resulted in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs, according to the Gateway Development Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than two years, the hardworking men and women building the Hudson Tunnel Project have not missed a day of work. That changes today, because the federal Administration continues to withhold funding for this vital investment in our nation\u2019s rail infrastructure,\u201d Gateway Development Commission CEO Tom Predergast said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter spending more than $1 billion, and countless hours of hard work, on this project, we will be left with empty construction sites in New York and New Jersey,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tri-state area commission also warned that delaying construction could cause the over a century-old North River Tunnel to shut down and lead to further economic losses.<\/p>\n

The work stoppage has resulted in the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Gateway Development Commission blamed the Trump administration in a statement. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

The commission sued the Trump administration<\/a> last week over the freeze while the administration probes for possible \u201cracist DEI\u201d contracts.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one person who terminated Gateway and only one person who can get it back on track: President Trump,\u201d a Schumer spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The Post reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Tish James, meanwhile, brought up the renaming trade in her nominating speech at the state convention Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThank god Sen. Schumer said hell no,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul was previously fine with renaming Penn to \u201cTrump Station\u201d <\/a>when she pulled $1.3 billion from the project last April.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive Gateway tunnel project came to a screeching halt at 5 p.m. Friday \u2014 a day after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2065,153,12480,57,9,24,55,54,56,7968,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-125811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chuck-schumer","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-gateway-project","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-penn-station","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125811","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=125811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}