Thirty million dollars in federal funds has finally made it to the coffers of the Gateway Development Commission, the Daily News has learned — ending, for now, nearly five months of funding interference by the Trump administration in the construction of the Hudson River Tunnel.
“We have received an initial disbursement of $30 million from the federal government and expect to receive the full $205 million in reimbursement funds,” a GDC spokesman confirmed in a statement.
Even with the $30 million in hand, it was unclear Friday when work could resume. Work on the tunnel ground to a halt last week as the GDC’s last line of credit ran out, and about 1,000 construction workers were laid off.
“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,” the spokesman said.
Gov. Hochul, whose administration brought the suit jointly with New Jersey, called the Friday transfer “progress,” and said she would continue to fight to fund the project.
“My message to the Trump Administration is simple: Enough with the chaos and delays. Get people back to work.” she said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a longtime booster of the project, also confirmed the funding. “We eagerly await the rest of the money to be sent as quickly as possible so construction can resume,” he said in a statement to The News on Friday.
At a virtual court hearing Friday, attorneys for the feds told Manhattan Federal Judge Jeannette Vargas that at least $30 million in frozen funds for the $16 billion project would start flowing again by Tuesday — a timeline that was apparently expedited in the hours that followed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nneka Nzekwu said that the federal Department of Transportation was “working hard” to get the money to the tunnel project, in accordance with Vargas’s order from last week.
The first $30 million of the roughly $200 million that has been on hold since October was processed Thursday afternoon, Nzekwu said.
AUSA Tara Schwartz added that the money now had to be processed by the U.S. Treasury Department, meaning the Gateway Development Commission — the bi-state body in charge of construction — won’t get paid out until after the holiday.
“DOT has done everything it can to process those requests,” she said. “It’s now just with the Treasury Department.”
Attorneys with the states of New York and New Jersey — which sued the feds over the funding pause earlier this month — expressed skepticism at the feds’ explanation, prompting Vargas to order the federal government to submit a status report by Tuesday with updates on where all payments stand.
The restoration in funding is the result of a temporary order issued by Vargas — attorneys for the feds are still fighting the states, as well as the GDC, in a separate case — over their claims they can hold up the funding.
Funding was initially held in the early hours of last year’s government shutdown, as the feds announced the project was not in compliance with a last-minute change to contracting rules. In the ensuing months, the White House variously claimed that the funding freeze was due to Democratic policy positions and to Schumer’s personal support for the tunnel’s construction.
Trump even promised to restore the funding if Schumer would support naming Penn Station and Dulles International Airport for the President.
