![\"rendering](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2024-07-09-142742.png\" "\\"NY,")
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Billions in federal funding for the Second Avenue Subway is now in jeopardy.<\/p>\n
MTA<\/p>\n
New York State and the MTA followed through on their threat<\/a> to sue the Trump administration on Tuesday \u2014 taking legal action to force the feds to unfreeze nearly $60 million in previously committed funding for the Second Avenue Subway\u2019s East Harlem expansion, which they have withheld since October.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0next contract for the <\/a>excavation<\/a> of two new stations at 106th and 125th Streets.<\/p>\n Attorneys for the state and MTA are asking for an \u201cexpedited motion for partial summary judgment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis Court can quickly resolve the MTA\u2019s claim for breach based on DOT\u2019s failure to reimburse $58,643,339.10, and respectfully should do so on an expedited motion for partial summary judgment,\u201d the suit reads. \u201cIf funding is not immediately resumed, it risks creating a \u201cdomino effect\u201d of cascading delays and inflated costs.\u201d<\/p>\n They are asking both for the funding to be unfrozen and for \u201cother consequential damages that DOT\u2019s suspension has caused.\u201d\n<\/p>\n MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced the legal action while testifying at a City Council preliminary budget hearing on Tuesday morning.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe MTA has just filed a lawsuit against the federal government to restore funding for the Second Avenue Subway,\u201d Lieber said. \u201cEverybody 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\u2019s owed to New Yorkers. And we\u2019re not afraid to fight for it in court.\u201d<\/p>\n The suit comes after the MTA boss had threatened legal action during the agency\u2019s most recent board meeting last month.<\/p>\n Roughly $3.4 billion of the $6.9 billion project is due to come from the federal government. However, Trump\u2019s Department of Transportation froze that funding in October, claiming the need to review the MTA\u2019s contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses to gauge its compliance with new rules around diversity, equity, and inclusion.<\/p>\n Lieber has repeatedly said that the MTA has answered all of the federal DOT\u2019s questions about its contracting practices.\n<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul,<\/a> 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<\/a> between the Empire and Garden States.<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe told Donald Trump that if he did not restore the funding for this project, we\u2019d see him in court. Today, we are doing just that,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cJust like Gateway, Donald Trump has two options: restore the money now, or wait for a judge to force him to.\u201d<\/p>\n Lieber projected confidence that the MTA will be successful in court. He referenced the agency\u2019s recent victory in Manhattan federal court, which prevented the Trump administration from shutting down congestion pricing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billions in federal funding for the Second Avenue Subway is now in jeopardy. MTA New York State and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[68204,68205,68206,66890,44154,68207,2423,426,68208,68209,9,24,68210,68211,63,68212,122,124,123,68213,68214],"class_list":["post-166354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-congestion-pricing-legal-battle","tag-dot-funding-dispute","tag-east-harlem-subway-expansion","tag-federal-court-of-claims","tag-federal-funding-freeze","tag-gateway-tunnel-lawsuit","tag-janno-lieber","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-minority-business-contracting","tag-mta-sues-trump-administration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-transit-funding","tag-new-york-infrastructure","tag-nyc","tag-q-line-extension","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-second-avenue-subway-lawsuit","tag-second-avenue-subway-phase-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166354","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=166354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Governor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/51701435885_5c509ef08b_k.jpg\" "\\"NY,")
Governor Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber in the Second Avenue Subway tunnel in November 2021.Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA<\/p>\n