For 11 years, Northeasterners have been patiently waiting for the construction of the Hudson Tunnel, a double-track tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey, to solve bottlenecks and delays in the Northeast Corridor, the most heavily traveled part of the entire national passenger rail system.
Construction finally began a year ago, with completion targeted by 2035. But in just a few months, President Trump officially halted all federal funding for the project and conducted an administrative review to determine whether any contracts had been awarded on “DEI” grounds.
Despite the Gateway Development Commission, which is in charge of the project, saying it has responded to all the government’s inquiries and is committed to complying with the anti-DEI requirement, funding has still not been resolved.
On Tuesday, the commission filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration claiming breach of contract.
The lawsuit claims, “DOT’s violations have endangered the project, endangered the livelihoods of countless workers employed in its construction, endangered passengers who must rely on dilapidated, centuries-old rail infrastructure, and undermined the reputation of the United States as a reliable contracting party.”
The Commission has been able to continue construction for the past four months, relying on reserves and a line of credit, despite the absence of $205 million to be obtained from the federal government. But the Commission said, “sources have been depleted,” and if funding is not resumed by Friday, the project will close, putting 11,000 jobs at risk.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said, “Gateway is the most critical infrastructure project in the country and thousands of union workers depend on it.”
“Construction disruptions also increase the risk that the 116-year-old North River Tunnel – already a major cause of delays, affecting hundreds of thousands of daily riders – will close, disrupting the most heavily used passenger rail line in the country and costing billions of dollars in lost time and productivity,” the commission said in a press release.
The lawsuit claims that the Department of Transportation failed to identify any specific violations or non-compliances with the project and instead targeted the project for its association with Democrats.
When announcing the decision in September 2025, before the historic government shutdown, the DOT said the review would take a long time “thanks to the Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries shutdowns,” and called it “another unfortunate loss of radical Democrats’ reckless decision to hold the federal government hostage to benefit illegal immigrants.”
But even though the shutdown ended more than two months ago, delays in the review process remain.
Last week, a White House spokesperson claimed that it was “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats who are standing in the way of an agreement for the Gateway Tunnel project by refusing to negotiate with the Trump administration,” and that the party was instead “prioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens,” according to the lawsuit.
Also, last week, congressional Democrats blocked a spending package that included $64.6 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
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