Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, released the following statement on the Trump administration’s decision to withhold $18 billion in infrastructure funding from New York City for the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 and the Hudson Tunnel Gateway project:
“The Trump administration is using New York City as a political pawn in a way that could have disastrous ramifications for New Yorkers,” said Senator Gillibrand. “The Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 and Hudson Tunnel Gateway projects are creating good-paying jobs for thousands of New Yorkers, contributing to sustaining and creating small businesses, and addressing transit deserts. It is critical to our city, state, and nation’s livelihood and economy that projects like these get built.”
In May, at a Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Transportation’s budget, Gillibrand secured an on-the-record commitment from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that he would not cancel grants for major transit capital investment projects. Gillibrand explained that this would include two major projects in New York: Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway project and the Hudson Tunnel Gateway project.
These projects signed Full-Funding Grant Agreements (FFGAs) with the Federal Transit Administration to provide more than $10 billion in federal funding for their completion. The commitment Gillibrand secured from Secretary Duffy should have ensured that this federal funding would continue to flow despite the Trump administration’s attempts to withhold funding to major projects in New York.
- The new Hudson Tunnel Gateway project will construct a new tunnel under the Hudson River to improve Amtrak rail service along the Northeast Corridor between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City. When completed, the project will double capacity and permit more high-speed rail service in and out of the city.
- The Second Avenue Subway extension project will construct a 1.76-mile subway extension along Second Avenue to extend subway service in Harlem. When completed, the Second Avenue Subway will serve over 300,000 daily riders.
###