{"id":137890,"date":"2026-02-18T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:59:10","slug":"trump-admin-releases-hudson-tunnel-funds-it-froze-for-months-allowing-work-to-restart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137890\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin releases Hudson tunnel funds it froze for months, allowing work to restart"},"content":{"rendered":"

The $205 million held since October by the Trump administration in a political spat over the region\u2019s largest infrastructure project<\/a> has been restored, the Gateway Development Commission said Wednesday in a statement.<\/p>\n

The money, part of nearly $15 billion earmarked by Congress for the construction of the $16 billion Hudson River Tunnel, was ordered temporarily restored by the courts last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cGateway Development Commission has received the full reimbursement owed to us from the federal government and now has more than $205 million available to fund work on the Hudson Tunnel Project,\u201d a spokesman for the commission said in a statement. \u201cWe are working with our contractors to deploy these funds to resume work as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work on the tunnel, which was still in its early stages, had ground to a halt earlier this month<\/a> as the project\u2019s last line of credit ran out amid the federal funding interference.<\/p>\n

The GDC said Wednesday that it was in the process of restarting work at three currently dormant construction sites on both sides of the Hudson River by next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cLetters will be sent to contractors today, and construction activities are expected to resume next week,\u201d the GDC spokesman said. \u201cWe continue to pursue all avenues to secure access to the full amount of federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project, including our lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s court orders restoring the funds are temporary, as two legal efforts continue to restore the funding in full.<\/p>\n

One, a breach of contract suit brought by the GDC against the Trump administration, is working its way through the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. The other, in which New York State and New Jersey sued the Trump administration in Manhattan Federal Court, led to last week\u2019s temporary restraining order against the funding freeze by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at the site of the Gateway Project Construction on February 17, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese funds should never have been withheld in the first place,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cWe will remain vigilant to ensure this funding continues uninterrupted, so that workers and commuters are never again left in limbo by the president\u2019s targeted and unlawful whims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul called the funding\u2019s restoration Wednesday \u201ca major result,\u201d while vowing to continue to push for all the congressionally approved billions.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s progress is significant, but we need certainty that Gateway funding will remain in place for the duration of the project,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cThe federal government has a legal obligation to fully fund Gateway, and New York will accept nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, listens as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at the site of the Gateway Project Construction on February 17, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The freeze began in the early hours of last year\u2019s government shutdown, as the feds announced the tunnel project was not in compliance with a last-minute change to federal contracting rules.<\/p>\n

In the months that followed, the White House variously claimed the funding freeze was due to Democratic policy positions and to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer\u2019s personal support for the tunnel\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n

Trump even proposed a restoration of funding if Schumer would support naming Penn Station and Dulles International Airport for the president<\/a>, the Daily News\u00a0 and others reported earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The president belatedly denied those efforts Monday<\/a> in an online screed, calling the story \u201cJUST MORE FAKE NEWS!\u201d In the same post, Trump claimed the tunnel project \u2014 which had to deplete its contingency funds due to his funding freeze \u2014 will be plagued by \u201ccost overruns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The $205 million held since October by the Trump administration in a political spat over the region\u2019s largest…\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-137890","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\/137890","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=137890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137890\/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=137890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}