{"id":132185,"date":"2026-02-13T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132185\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:48:09","slug":"federal-funds-set-to-flow-again-for-hudson-river-tunnel-project-at-least-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132185\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal funds set to flow again for Hudson River Tunnel project, at least for now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of dollars in federal funds were set to flow once again to the Hudson River Tunnel Thursday night, after a federal court order blocking the bucks expired.<\/p>\n

The expiration effectively reinstated Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jeanette Vargas\u2019 order from last week<\/a> in a suit brought against the feds by the states of New York and New Jersey. That order, which had been put on ice until 5 p.m. Thursday, stopped the Trump administration from blocking the distribution of federal funds for the $16 billion rail tunnel project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s order is now in effect, and the federal government must immediately release funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cThis administration never had the authority to freeze this funding, and it no longer has any excuse to delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect full compliance with the court\u2019s order and the prompt delivery of the funds needed to keep workers on the job and this critical project moving forward,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A flurry of filings by the feds<\/a> earlier this week led to Vargas temporarily pausing her injunction while attorneys for the Department of Transportation sought to challenge it at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey<\/p>\n

The Gateway tunnel under construction in Manhattan last year. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey)<\/p>\n

But the appellate court did not come to the Trump administration\u2019s rescue as Vargas\u2019 block expired Thursday. In a brief, two-sentence order, the court referred the matter to a full panel the week of February 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is good news for the Hudson Tunnel Project, and we anticipate receiving the $205 million in reimbursement funds from the federal government,\u201d a spokesman for the Gateway Development Commission, the bi-state body in charge of building the tunnel, said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

GDC is not a party to the states\u2019 suit, and is separately suing the federal government<\/a> for breach of contract over the funding freeze.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration initially froze funding last fall, announcing that they would block the distribution of the congressionally approved funds just hours into last year\u2019s federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n

While the USDOT has claimed the funding interdiction is tied to the Trump administration\u2019s change to diversity rules in construction contracting, the president and his coterie have offered other explanations. After stating in October that the project was \u201cterminated\u201d because it was supported by Democratic lawmakers, Trump went on to offer to restore the funding if Penn Station and Dulles Airport were named after him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an unrelated explanation, White House spokesman Kush Desai claimed last month that the funding freeze was over the fact that Democratic lawmakers had supposedly not been \u201cprioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer \u2014 a New York Democrat who has been a vocal proponent of the tunnel \u2014 welcomed the development Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very good news that the original court ruling, which compels the US Department of Transportation to restore the unjustly frozen Gateway funds, is again in effect,\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese federal funds for the Gateway project are congressionally appropriated and contractually committed and should be released immediately by the US Department of Transportation so 1,000 union workers can get back on the job, and this vital transportation infrastructure project can get moving again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear when the money would actually reach GDC. And Thursday\u2019s restoration of funding is temporary, pending a ruling on the feds\u2019 motions in the Second Circuit \u2014 a reality acknowledged by the GDC on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is a positive step, we need consistent, reliable access to the Hudson Tunnel Project\u2019s federal funding moving forward,\u201d a GDC spokesman said. \u201cGDC continues to pursue all avenues to regain access to all the federal funds for this urgent project, including our lawsuit. We are confident in our legal position and look forward to resolving this important matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of dollars in federal funds were set to flow once again to the Hudson River Tunnel Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58789,"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-132185","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\/132185","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=132185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}