Fed Judge Orders Trump to Resume Funding Gateway but Appeal Stalls $16B Project Again
Only hours after the $16 billion Gateway project came to a screeching halt, a federal district court judge has told the Trump Administration to restore the funding. Then the Trump Administration countered a NY/NJ suit, negating the TRO and keeping the federal spigot closed.
| 09 Feb 2026 | 06:39
Thousands of construction jobs are at stake as the states of New York and New Jersey seek to get the Trump Administration to release funds for the $16 billion Gateway Project that have been held up since Oct. (
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A new nine-mile tunnel under the Hudson River (shown in purple) is under construction, part of a $16 billion Gateway project to replace the 116-year old existing tunnels that were badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy. (
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Over 200,000 daily commuters come through the dilapidated Hudson River rail tunnels that have had problems ever since they were flooded in Hurricane Sandy. A federal judge said the Trump Administration must release the funding for two new tunnels now under construction. (
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A federal district court judge has ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze funds for the $16 billion Gateway Project, claiming in a temporary restraining order the money was being withheld illegally. (
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After the Trump administration refused to release the remaining funds for the Gateway Project on February 6th, a federal district court ordered the federal government to resume funding the $16 billion project designed to put two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River.
But then the Trump Administration of Feb. 9 countered the suits filed by New York and New Jersey, effectively stalling the project once again and keeping potentially thousands of construction workers from working on the far west side construction project at Hudson Yards.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jeannette Vargas issued a temporary restraining order claiming the Trump Administration was illegally withholding the funds. The states of New York and New Jersey are still in court seeking to get the TRO turned into a permanent injunction that will turn on the federal spigot again.
“We will continue coordinating with our partners at the Gateway Development Commission and New Jersey to ensure the Administration follows the law and releases the funding New Yorkers are owed,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. NY and NJ have clashed over the congestion pricing in downtown Manhattan in the recent past but on the plan to build a new rail link between North Bergen, NJ and Penn Station they are totally in sync.
“We are in court today, we have sued the President, we are fighting for the working men and women for this project,” said NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill at a February 6th press conference in Weehawken, NJ with Senator Cory Booker.
Turning off the funding is the outcome of a running feud between President Donald Trump and state and local officials in the Democratic leaning states. Thousands of construction jobs are in peril.
“Pausing construction will result in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs,” the Gateway Commission said as the project was hurtling toward a 5 p.m. Feb. 6 shutdown that the TRO sought to avert. “An extended pause would put at risk approximately 11,000 construction jobs on the current projects, as well as the 95,000 jobs and $19.6 billion in economic activity that construction is anticipated to generate overall.”
Trump said back in October he was suspending funding in the midst of the government shutdown, ostensibly claiming contractors on the project still had diversity goals which his administration has sought to derail. Although the federal government reopened, the funds, which were already approved by Congress, have not started to flow again.
The web site Punchbowl News reported on Feb. 5 that Trump recently told Senator Chuck Schumer, that he’d resume funding if the Democratic minority leader supported a move to name Penn Station and the Dulles Airport in Virginia after the president. The move was rejected out of hand, according to Schumer.
New York Attorney General James who is joining in the suit also blasted the decision by Trump to halt the funds in a statement released on Feb. 3. “Allowing this project to stop would put one of the country’s most heavily used transit corridors at risk.”
A hefty $4.38 billion is currently obligated to the project.
The Hudson River tubes, which carry an estimated 200,000 commuters a day to Penn Station, were severely damaged from flooding during Hurricane Sandy in Oct. 2012. Though the tubes were partially restored to working order, trains experience frequent service disruptions and there is often a need for emergency maintenance on the tracks.
Without the continuation of construction, the existing Hudson Tunnel that are over 116 years old could be forced to shut down to undergo extensive renovation.
The states of New York and New Jersey have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into this project, with the federal government awarding more than $16 billion through grant and loan programs.
N.J. Congressman Frank Pallone had strong opinions on the Trump bid to get Penn Station and Dulles Airport named after him. “If he wants something named for him, I got lots of landfills...or maybe a super fund site, I’ll name something after him. But don’t play this political nonsense.”
Trump insisted after reporters asked him about the naming rights, that it was Schumer, union leaders as well as Democrats and Republicans who had proposed the naming right to him. Schumer rejcted the idea and called the idea that he had proposed it in the first place an “absolute lie.”