{"id":903852,"date":"2026-06-30T20:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/903852\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:39:15","slug":"trump-admin-must-fund-gateway-tunnel-project-federal-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/903852\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin must fund Gateway Tunnel project, federal judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration cannot withhold funding for the Gateway Tunnel rail project, a federal judge ruled Monday, ending a months-long legal fight<\/a> between New York and New Jersey and the federal government over the $16 billion infrastructure endeavor.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled that the Trump administration had no legal justification to freeze federal funds for the reconstruction of the 116-year-old rail tunnel last fall and that doing so would cause \u201cirreparable harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargas, a Biden appointee, likened Trump\u2019s action to \u201cunlawful executive decisionmaking\u201d in a win for the two states that had brought the suit<\/a> in February to lift the president\u2019s funding block days before it went into effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York and New Jersey Govs. Kathy Hochul and Mikie Sherrill, along with Attorneys General Letitia James and Jennifer Davenport, in a Monday night joint statement, commended Vargas\u2019 ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled that a federal court has once again agreed that the Trump administration\u2019s decision to freeze billions of dollars in grants for the Gateway Tunnel Project is flagrantly unlawful,\u201d they said. \u201cThis is the most important infrastructure project in the nation, and thanks to our litigation, 1,000 people are back on the job and construction continues every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The massive infrastructure project aims to replace a two-tube rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River connecting the Empire and Garden States, which is used by hundreds of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains carrying tens of thousands of commuters every weekday. The tunnel not only brings office workers into Manhattan, but also serves as a vital link in Amtrak\u2019s Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

The current passage \u2014 known as the North River Tunnel \u2014 must be replaced because it is at risk of shutting down after over a century of use, coupled with severe damage from 2012\u2019s Hurricane Sandy. Local officials have warned<\/a> that if the tunnel is not replaced, the old one will fail, snarling essential travel throughout the region.<\/p>\n

The Gateway Development Commission \u2014 the bi-state entity leading construction \u2014 is currently assembling<\/a> a massive tunnel boring machine that will carve the first section of the new tunnel through the New Jersey Palisades, starting later this year, at a work site across the Hudson.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s freeze on hundreds of millions of dollars in already committed funding caused GDC to halt work for much of February<\/a>. GDC ended the work stoppage later that month, when the feds began sending funds again following Judge Vargus\u2019 ruling<\/a> that they had to release over $200 million they had put on ice<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Vargas had ordered funding to be reinstated as the case played out, those working on the project have told amNewYork that the lack of certainty over the past few months has still caused delays and difficulties.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s ruling should put an end to the uncertainty surrounding one of the nation\u2019s most important infrastructure projects,\u201d the Regional Plan Association said in a statement. \u201cThe court made clear that funding approved by Congress for the Gateway Program cannot be withheld indefinitely. Every unnecessary delay comes at a steep cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration argued it was withholding funds because it was investigating whether GDC was in compliance with the administration\u2019s new diversity, equity and inclusion standards. However, New York and New Jersey alleged the funding freeze was political retribution, citing Truth Social posts and other statements the president made in September, days before his pause on the project\u2019s funding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer fought for 15 years to get, and I\u2019m cutting the project. The project is gonna be dead,\u201d Trump said just before freezing the funding, adding later, \u201cThe project in New York. It\u2019s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It\u2019s terminated. . . . It\u2019s terminated because the Democrats are so foolish . . . . Right now, there is no funding \u2013 because it\u2019s up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an April hearing<\/a> on the matter, assistant U.S. attorney Chibogu Nzekwu told Vargas, \u201cI don\u2019t think you need to look at,\u201d the president\u2019s comments, a position the judge appeared to find suspect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t he part of the executive branch?\u201d Vargas asked, questioning how she could be asked to disregard Trump\u2019s statements. \u201cIsn\u2019t that how I\u2019d determine the pretext for \u2026 [whether his decision was] arbitrary and capricious?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also slammed the project as a \u201cboondoggle\u201d<\/a> in a February Truth Social post, claiming without evidence that it would run billions of dollars over budget.<\/p>\n

When asked for a comment on the ruling, Trump\u2019s Department of Transportation didn\u2019t directly opine on it. The agency claimed on Monday evening that it \u201cremains committed to ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly and do not fund unconstitutional, discriminatory contracting practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargas cited the administration\u2019s September statements in her Monday decision, also noting that GDC had said it has always been in compliance with the federal government\u2019s standards and had offered all the proof it had been asked to. She emphasized that the Trump administration never provided actual proof that GDC had violated the law, including over the five months the suit stretched on for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if DOT determines that no corrective conditions could remedy the noncompliance may it\n<\/p>\n

withhold payments until corrective action is taken,\u201d Vargas\u2019 Monday decision reads. \u201cThe Sept. 30 Suspension skipped right to payment suspension without any finding that GDC had violated the law.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her decision also shot down arguments from the federal government that Manhattan\u2019s federal court wasn\u2019t the right one to bring the case in, agreeing with the states\u2019 position that they were allowed to ask her to lift the Trump administration\u2019s decision to end the funding because it would be a ruling on an illegal agency action, not explicitly a ruling that demanded the feds offer monetary relief, which district courts aren\u2019t allowed to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration cannot withhold funding for the Gateway Tunnel rail project, a federal judge ruled Monday, ending…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":652791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,239815,240722,218535,242907,12094,365907,250978,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1807,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,212564],"class_list":["post-903852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-gateway-development-commission","tag-gateway-tunnel-project","tag-gdc","tag-gov-kathy-hochul","tag-new-jersey-attorney-general-jennifer-davenport","tag-new-jersey-gov-mikie-sherrill","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-president-trump","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-usdot"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116840992995434906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}