By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers from New York and New Jersey on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to restore funding for a critical $16 billion New York City-area tunnel before work is set to be halted next week.
Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Andy Kim and a group of House lawmakers from the two states said in a letter that “continued delays threaten catastrophic disruption to the Northeast Corridor, massive job losses, and serious harm to the regional and national economy, despite the project being fully funded, fully permitted, and already under construction.”
The White House did not immediately comment but on Tuesday blamed Democrats for the dispute. The U.S. Transportation Department, which has withheld funding, referred questions to the White House.
Trump said in October he had terminated the project, citing Schumer’s work backing the project. His Republican administration has repeatedly targeted major transit and infrastructure projects in Democratic-led states.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Trump’s move to withhold funding for the project “straight-up mob boss politics.”
New York’s Gateway Development Commission, created in 2019 to oversee the massive construction, said the project will be suspended on February 6 if Trump does not restore the funding that was approved during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Any failure of the existing Hudson tunnel, which was built in 1910 and heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, would hobble commuting in the metropolitan area that produces 10% of the country’s economic output and is used by 200,000 travelers daily.
More than $1 billion has already been spent on the project. The initiative, which received $12 billion in federal grants and $4 billion in federal loans, involves repairs to an existing tunnel and the construction of a new one for passenger railroad Amtrak and state commuter lines between New Jersey and Manhattan.
The U.S. Transportation Department accused Gateway in December of violating the law in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program to help small businesses run by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”
Following a court ruling, women and some members of minority racial groups are no longer presumed to be economically disadvantaged when bidding for contracts.
Gateway said it told USDOT that it was in compliance with federal law. Trump, a former New York City real estate developer, refused to approve funding for the projects in his first term.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)
