In September, the Trump administration froze funding for a bipartisan, $16 billion infrastructure project that would provide a vital upgrade to America’s busiest rail corridor. Leaders of the project, known as Gateway, looked to the Trump administration for guidance, but beyond a vow to review “unconstitutional DEI principles,” they say that no such guidance came.
Funds for Gateway, which would connect New Jersey and Manhattan by rail, eventually ran out. Barring a last-minute court ruling or federal change of heart, construction will be suspended at 5 p.m. today, putting 1,000 union workers out of a job and emptying construction sites where hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent.
On Thursday, a Punchbowl News report revealed the administration’s endgame. President Donald Trump would release the funding, he reportedly told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, if Schumer promised to help rename Dulles International Airport in D.C. and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.
Schumer declined the offer, and the project now sits in limbo as negotiations and two federal lawsuits unfold.
“We’ve got some of the hardest working people in the tri-state area who are now having their jobs sabotaged, having a project undermined by this petty vindictiveness of a president who seems to want his name on everything but doesn’t give a damn about the working people of New Jersey and the commuters of our region who are depending on this project,” Senator Cory Booker told reporters.
Booker, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, and several members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation met on a construction site in New Jersey this morning as they continue to pressure the president into reopening the funding spigot.
“We are not going to stand for it,” Sherrill declared. “We are drawing the line here.”
Congress appropriated the funding with bipartisan legislation during Joe Biden’s presidency. Federal grants fund about 70% of the Gateway project; the rest comes from Department of Transportation loans that will be paid back by New York and New Jersey states and the Port Authority. The Trump administration froze both forms of funding.
Trump has repeatedly indicated that he froze funding for partisan reasons, including his distaste for Schumer or that Democrats are “foolish.”
New Jersey and New York sued the Trump administration earlier this week, asking a federal judge for a temporary order requiring the administration to resume funding. In a filing this morning, Trump administration lawyers argued the states lack the standing to sue, calling the suit “drastic and extraordinary.” They argued such a case must be brought in the Court of Federal Claims, not a federal district court.
A judge will hold a hearing on the case this afternoon.
The Gateway Development Commission, a bistate agency tasked with running the yearslong project, also sued the Trump administration earlier this week. A status conference in that lawsuit — which was filed in the Court of Federal Claims — is scheduled next week.
The GDC said an extended pause could risk a further 11,000 construction jobs, as well as the 95,000 jobs and $19.6 billion in economic activity that Gateway is projected to generate. Officials say the pause also increases the chances that the 116-year-old North River Tunnel will have to shut down. If that happens, the country’s most-used passenger rail line would be severed.
“After 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,” said Tom Pendergrast, the CEO of GDC.