The Trump administration has cried uncle in its bid to keep funding from the Second Avenue Subway.
In documents filed Thursday with the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. — where the MTA is currently suing the Trump administration for blocking the disbursement of roughly $60 million in congressionally approved funds — attorneys for the feds said they had completed a long-stalled review of the MTA’s contracting practices, and found the transit agency to be in compliance.
“DOT has completed its review and is resuming the processing of reimbursement requests pursuant to normal procedures,” a U.S. Department of Transportation official wrote to the MTA in a letter attached to the court filing.
The USDOT has withheld all federal reimbursements for the Second Avenue Subway project since October, when — in the early hours of the federal government shutdown — the Trump administration announced it would cut funds to two New York City transit projects, the subway and the Gateway Development Commission’s Hudson River Tunnel.
In so doing, the feds cited a rule — only added to the Federal Register after the announcement that funds were being withheld — forbidding the use of race and sex as factors in contracting under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.
Funding would be on hold, Transportation Secretary Duffy told the Daily News at the time, until the USDOT reviewed the contracting practices for compliance.
MTA officials have insisted that they’ve been in compliance since late October, a contention on which the USDOT has repeatedly declined to comment.
By February, the USDOT was referring reporters to the White House, a spokesman for which linked the funding stoppage to Democratic opposition to Trump’s immigration raids.
In March, the Gateway Development Commission sued the feds in the Court of Federal Claims, arguing the Trump administration had breached its contract with the bi-state body when it withheld $205 million in funds from the Hudson River Tunnel project.
Judge Richard Hertling ruled the GDC suit was moot after a parallel legal effort in New York restored the funding under a temporary order. But Hertling said the Trump administration had “bypassed the contractual procedural requirements and breached the contracts” it had with Gateway by witholding the funds.
The feds sent Thursday’s letter — effectively restoring funding for the Second Avenue Subway — hours before they were due to appear in the Court of Federal Claims to make oral arguments before Judge Philip S. Hadji.
“It shouldn’t have taken seven months and a lawsuit to get here, but with the federal government’s concession today on the courthouse steps, the MTA can now confidently forge ahead with Second Avenue Subway Phase 2,” MTA Chairman Jano Lieber said in a statement.
The MTA chief said an outstanding excavation contract could now be awarded, and would be shortly.
In a tweet Thursday, Gov. Hochul welcomed the federal government’s decision.
“We took the Trump Administration to court after they illegally froze funding for the Second Avenue Subway,” she wrote. “Today, they backed down.
“The freeze is over. For East Harlem and every New Yorker who relies on our subways, release our money immediately.”
