Once again, POTUS 47’s efforts at creating chaos have been trumped: On Feb. 18, the Gateway Development Commission (GDC) received the full reimbursement owed to it from the federal government and now has more than $205 million available to fund work on the Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP). “We are working with our contractors to deploy these funds to resume work as soon as possible,” GDC said. “Letters will be sent to contractors today, and construction activities are expected to resume next week. We continue to pursue all avenues to secure access to the full amount of federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project, including our lawsuit.”
It has been a long, torturous road for the GDC, and it’s not over just yet. But so far, every attempt by POTUS 47 to cripple the Gateway Program has been thwarted. Gateway, accurately and truthfully described as “the most urgent major infrastructure program in the country,” is “a comprehensive set of rail investments that will improve commuter and intercity services, add needed resiliency, and create new capacity for the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor (NEC), the most heavily used passenger rail line in the country, hosting more than 2,200 train movements and 800,000 passenger trips daily.” In short, Gateway continues its forward momentum under the leadership of CEO Tom Prendergast and his team. I have no doubt that this project will be completed on-budget and on time.
Background: Two Weeks of GDC Triumphs
Federal Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York late Friday, Feb. 6 blocked the Administration from freezing billions in funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP), centerpiece of the Gateway Program, pending ongoing litigation. “Plaintiffs have adequately demonstrated that they would imminently suffer” irreparable harm, Judge Vargas wrote in her 11-page ruling, if the HTP was “forced to shut down its operations.”
“The Gateway Development Commission is pleased with the court’s decision today,” GDC said in a Feb. 6 statement after Vargas’s ruling. “We thank our partners in New York and New Jersey for taking action to help us access the federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project. As soon as funds are released, we will work quickly to restart site operations and get our workers back on the job.”
On Feb. 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit allowed Judge Vargas’s order to take effect, requiring the POTUS 47 Administration to resume funding. In doing so, the appeals court paved the way for the project to resume as a lawsuit brought by the two Democratic-led states of New Jersey and New York proceeds. The court will issue another ruling after holding oral arguments later this month.
“This is good news for the Hudson Tunnel Project. We have received an initial disbursement of $30 million from the federal government and expect to receive the full $205 million in reimbursement funds,” the GDC said Feb. 12. “Construction remains paused for now, and we are working with our contractors to plan how to deploy these funds in the most effective way and get workers back on the job to resume some construction as soon as possible. While this is a positive step, we need consistent, reliable access to the Hudson Tunnel Project’s federal funding moving forward. GDC continues to pursue all avenues to regain access to all the federal funds for this urgent project, including our lawsuit. We are confident in our legal position and look forward to resolving this important matter.“ GDC [has been] working with the Commission’s contractors to plan how to deploy these funds in the most effective way and get workers to the sites to resume some construction as soon as possible.”
HTP workers had been preparing for a pause of unpredictable duration. Under the direction of Tom Prendergast (Railway Age’s 2017 Railroader of the Year), they did not remove cranes and other equipment from the job sites. “If the pause is going to be days and weeks, it could stay [in place],” Prendergast told The New York Times. “If it’s going to be months, that would be a different story.” Prendergast, a public transportation icon, especially in the New York Metropolitan area, had guided Phase 1 of MTA New York City Transit’s Second Avenue Subway to revenue service in 2016, among numerous other accomplishments in his decades-long career.
The GDC has been seeking release of HTP federal funding withheld since October 2025. POTUS 47 has said the project is “terminated,” though he and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have given conflicting public statements on its status.
That’s par for the course. POTUS 47, most of the time unhinged, spluttering blatant lies and nonsense and out of touch with reality, says and does what he wants. Administration officials must be exhausted continuously having to say, “Well, what the President really meant was … ” Eventually, when the air and energy have been sucked out of the room, one escapes to a more peaceful place, where breathing is easier and the dark clouds seem further away.
In October, POTUS 47 and the USDOT began withholding federal funding payments for the HTP and Phase 2 of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Second Avenue Subway projects, stating that payment requests could not be processed during project reviews it had ordered. Such “reviews” have been based on USDOT’s nonsensical notion that it needed to investigate whether “any unconstitutional practices” are occurring within the projects after the agency ruled that “race and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution” should be removed from the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which is intended to favor small businesses when awarding contracts for federally funded projects.
How idiotic is that?
US DOT officials had said that funding halt “would last until a review of the project’s contracts for compliance with new policies regarding diversity could be completed,” The New York Times reported. GDC Executive Vice President Catherine Rinaldi said the Commission had responded to all of the USDOT requests and that all of its contracts with DBEs had been “appropriately certified.”
Additionally, the GDC sued the USDOT for breach of contract in a federal court in Washington Feb. 2, contending that it was owed more than $200 million in expenses that had not been reimbursed. The States of New York and New Jersey filed a separate suit in federal court in Manhattan.
The White House has accused Democratic politicians of failing to negotiate with the POTUS 47 Administration to secure a “deal” (POTUS 47’s most frequently used word in his rather limited lexicon) for the project’s future. The Administration blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats for refusing to negotiate, and “alluding to their stances on immigration policies,” according to the New York Times.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) responded Feb. 5 on social media to POTUS 47’s proposed “my name in very, very big letters if you want your train money” offer. “These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers,” Gillibrand said on X. “I demand that the President put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his Administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain.”
The governors of New York and New Jersey expressed satisfaction at Judge Vargas’ ruling. “Today, a judge affirmed what we’ve said from the start: Our case against the [POTUS 47] Administration is likely to succeed, and [POTUS 47’s] attempt to rip away funding and derail the Gateway Project is likely to be found unlawful,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.
Newly installed Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey agreed: “I am thrilled that the court has granted temporary relief, lifting the freeze of billions of dollars of federal funding for Gateway. [POTUS 47’s] arbitrary and politically motivated decision to freeze this funding is plainly illegal, and we will continue to pursue full relief so the nation’s most urgent transportation project can keep moving forward—and workers can keep putting food on the table.”
GDC’s lawsuit, in my humble opinion, rightfully and accurately argues that USDOT and GDC are legally bound by the terms of Capital Investment Grants (CIG), Federal-State Partnership (FSP) Grant and RAISE Grant agreements, as well as Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Financing (RRIF) loans, since full HTP funding was secured in July 2024 during the Biden Administration. But of course, anything done during the Biden Administration to advance critical infrastructure projects was “a terrible disaster,” according to POTUS 47.
Yeah, OK …
Let’s get back to work. Give ’em hell, Tom and Cathy!
