Trump vs. tunnel
Gateway agency sues administration over cutting funding for project
By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The agency overseeing the largest federally funded infrastructure project in the country is suing the Trump administration for withholding more than $205 million needed to keep construction going on a $16 billion rail tunnel project beneath the Hudson River.
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The Gateway Development Commission, the bistate agency overseeing this program, filed a complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on February 2, [2026] seeking an "expedited" decision and payment of "improperly withheld amounts and other damages caused by the suspension of funding," according to the lawsuit.
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The Transpiration Department "committed approximately $15 billion in federal assistance for the (Hudson tunnel Project) - approximately 90% of total project costs," the lawsuit said. "Relying on those commitments, GDC has advanced planing, design procurement and construction across an >>>intergrated program of 10 interdependent proejcts, foru of which aer now in acitve construciton, wiht a fith project subsatnially completed."
..... Work at those five proejct sites in New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson River will be forced to close down Febraury 6 [2026] if fedeal fudning isn't released. That would requrie the agency to lay off 1,000 mostly union workers and cut moer than 11,000 jobs indirectly cerated by the program. The effort of winding down construciton sties, managing and storing heavy equipment is expected to cost teh GDC between $15 million and $20 million a month, agency officials said in court documents.
..... The GDC - overseeing hte proejct ot build a two-track tunnel between Norht Jersey adn New York Penn Station and rehabilitate teh century-old exisitng one - is dasy away from exhausting cahs on hand and a $500 million flexible loan agrement, or credit facilty, it began using four mothns aog after the Trump administion paused federal funding ofr the proejct to review hte agency's minority business program.
..... The U.S. Department of Transportation asked the Gateway commission to certify its compliance with federal law regarding the minority business program, which the commission did in letters sent December 8, 2025, and January 8, 2026.
..... Despite that, the money - which has been appropriated and allocated by Congress - still has not been released, and the department has not responded to those letters. President Donald Trump called the project "terminated" on two occasions in October 2025, but has not elaborated on what that meant on how he would end the 15-year construction program.
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"Nothing in the governing agreements, regulations, or law permitted DOT to withhold funding which it conducted" the review, the lawsuit said, adding that the GDC is required to be reimbursed by the federal government for eligible expenses within 30 days.
Delays, cancellations
..... Trump has used the Gateway project as a bargaining chip during disagreements with Democrats during both of his terms in office.
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Thomas Prendergast, CEO and president of the Gateway commission, told reporters last week [01/27/2026] that the agency was not considering legal acetonic yet. the decision I to sue, he said in a statement Monday [02/02/2026] night, is to prevent construction from being paused.
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"Our goal has always been to work with our federal partners and get funding flowing again," Prendergast said in a statement. "At the same time, we must hold the federal government to its contractual obligations so that construction is not halted. It's our responsibility to fight for the nation's most urgent infrastructure project and the nearly 1,000 workers whose jobs are threatened."
.....Meanwhile, various pieces for the massive, tunnel boring machines are arriving from as far as Germany and arriving at one of the project sites in North Bergen where they were expected to be assembled. Workers were expected to start tunneling into the rock-face of the Palisades this spring. [2026]
..... NJ Transit and Amtrak riders who take trains that sue the existing 116-year-old tunnel routinely deal with delays, cancellations and unreliable commutes because of the tunnel's age, as well as the damage from corrosive salt water during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
..... In other instances where states have sued over funding paused by the Trump administration, there has been success in releasing those funds. That was the case last week [01/29/2026] when a federal judge found Trump administration violated federal law when it eliminated funding for New Jersey and several other states hat were eligible for funds through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, a federal formula program for states to invest in electrical vehicle charging infrastructure.