Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, released the following statement on President Trump’s remarks earlier today terminating the Hudson Tunnel Gateway Project:
“The Trump administration is — once again — using New York City as a political pawn in a way that could have disastrous ramifications for the entire country,” said Senator Gillibrand. “The Hudson Tunnel Gateway project is 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. New Yorkers have been lied to, and our tax dollars deserve to be spent in New York in ways that grow our economy and serve the needs of New Yorkers. The Gateway project has been in the works long before President Trump and will serve New Yorkers long after President Trump.”
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 including the Hudson Tunnel Gateway project.
A Full-Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) with the Federal Transit Administration was signed to provide billions in federal funding for the project’s 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 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. An April 2025 report from the Regional Plan Association found that the full Gateway Program will generate $445 billion in economic benefits. A partial shutdown of the Hudson River Tunnel, without the construction of a new tunnel, would cost the national economy $16 billion over four years.
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