The MTA in New York on Tuesday filed suit against the Trump administration for stalling the release of tens of millions of contractually obligated funds for the second phase of the Second Ave. subway tunnel.
The complaint filed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the Court of Federal Claims says New York has been deprived of nearly $60 million that was promised to support the project that began construction two years ago.
“The United States’s breach threatens MTA’s ability to remain on schedule, get the new subway tracks and stations up and running (and begin earning revenue), and has required the MTA to divert millions of dollars away from other critical transportation projects in order to fill the gap,” it reads.
“The Second Avenue Subway Project is the fulfillment of a longstanding promise to the residents of east Manhattan and Harlem after a century of delay.”
The project is one of two that the Trump administration targeted for funding interference in the early hours of the federal government shutdown in October, along with the Hudson River Gateway tunnel. That money was temporarily released after a court battle.
The subway project is designed to extend the Q line almost 2 miles into Harlem and East Harlem, shortening the daily commutes of upwards of 100,000 New Yorkers. New stations are slated for 106th, 116th, and 125th Sts., with the 125th St. station to connect riders from the 4, 5, and 6 lines to the Metro-North Railroad.
“The time has come, for Second Avenue Subway, to say the federal government has to make good on its legal commitments in the grant agreement, which says you’ve got to reimburse us,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber told reporters Tuesday. “They continue to refuse to do so.”
A spokesperson for the US Department of Transportation said in a statement that the agency “is committed to ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. We are considering all legal avenues.”
Gov. Hochul said in a statement that the suit was yet another effort by New York to push back on the federal government’s erratic “shutting off billions of dollars in previously committed infrastructure funding.”
“We have already made enormous progress — work is underway and the project is moving on schedule and on budget. But Donald Trump’s unlawful funding pause has put this entire project at risk,” Hochul said.
“We told Donald Trump that if he did not restore the funding for this project, we’d see him in court. Today, we are doing just that. Just like Gateway, Donald Trump has two options: restore the money now, or wait for a judge to force him to.”
The Trump administration has provided a grab bag of excuses for blocking funding for the project and for the Hudson River tunnel project, including supposed contracting compliance, the Democrats’ position on immigration, and Trump’s beef with Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The president floated restoring funds for the Hudson tunnel in exchange for Schumer backing an effort to plaster the Trump name on Penn Station or Washington’s Dulles International Airport, which the senator would not agree to, The News reported.
“These projects are not political bargaining chips; they are lifelines for New York’s economy and union workers, and we will fight until every dollar of promised funding is delivered,” Schumer said in a statement to The News Tuesday.
The MTA’s suit comes on the heels of a ruling from the Court of Federal Claims in a similar suit brought by the Gateway Development Commission over the Trump administration’s interference in funding for the Hudson River Tunnel.
That ruling, issued by Judge Richard Hertling, sided with the Trump administration that Gateway’s claims for reimbursement were moot — because a parallel case brought by the states of New York and New Jersey had temporarily restored the flow of funds.
But Hertling went on to say that the USDOT “bypassed the contractual procedural requirements and breached the contracts” it had with Gateway, and the feds’ “suspension of disbursements to [Gateway] did not adhere to the plain and clear requirements of the contracts and regulations governing the relationship between [Gateway] and DOT.”
