Despite the announcement yesterday from President Donald Trump that billions of dollars in funding for the Gateway Tunnel project would be halted, construction is not immediately stopping – but that won’t be true forever, and Democrats and Republicans in New Jersey are blaming the other for the funding freeze amid a government shutdown.
A source familiar with the project confirmed that construction on the rail tunnel, which is set to connect Manhattan and New Jersey beginning in 2035, has not stopped. The source said it’s tough to put a timeline on how long construction can continue without disbursements, but they said construction can continue for several weeks, at least.
A bi-state agency dubbed the Gateway Development Commission leads construction of the project. In a statement, Thomas Prendergast, the agency’s CEO, said his agency remains “focused on keeping the project on scope, schedule, and budget.”
Officially, the Trump administration’s stated reasoning for the funding freeze is an ongoing review of “unconstitutional DEI principles” in the Gateway project and in New York City’s Second Avenue Subway project. Because the government has shut down, federal workers in the Department of Transportation are on furlough, thus delaying the review.
Democrats, though, say that the funding freeze’s focus on New York City, home to the Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate, indicates that Trump’s intention is to punish their party for failing to support a GOP proposal to avoid a government shutdown. The Energy Department also separately announced yesterday that it will cancel $7.5 billion in clean energy projects, almost all of them in blue states like New Jersey.
“It’s clearly political retribution. They are gloating about it,” Senator Andy Kim said. “This is the kind of stuff that people get really turned off by. It’s the kind of mafia tactics that I know people just can’t stand.”
Last night, every Democrat in New Jersey’s congressional delegation – led by Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), who represents the New Jersey end of the Gateway project – signed onto a letter panning the Trump administration’s decision and saying “it is abundantly clear that the withholding of these funds is politically motivated.”
But pro-Gateway Republicans are not proving willing to break with Trump on the issue, and say that the blame instead lies with Democrats for failing to avert a shutdown.
“I strongly support the Hudson Gateway Tunnel project and am adamant that it be completed,” Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), a swing-district Republican who represents thousands of rail commuters who stand to benefit from the Gateway project, said in a statement. “Democrat leaders in New Jersey and New York need to stop playing senseless political games, which are threatening to result in real delays in construction. We need to do everything necessary to keep this vital project moving forward.”
The issue has also, inevitably, made its way into New Jersey’s ongoing race for governor. Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor, told reporters today that he’s spoken with the Trump administration to confirm construction has continued. Beyond that, he deferred to budget negotiations at the federal level.
“Just because [the government] shut down doesn’t mean the shovels didn’t go into the ground yesterday, today, or tomorrow,” Ciattarelli said. “That project continues.”
Ciattarelli’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) – the so-called “tunnel-obsessed congresswoman” – has sought to tie Ciattarelli to Trump and the funding freeze. The first Trump administration worked to block funding for the tunnels; the federal government formally approved the project during President Joe Biden’s administration.
“My opponent has said time and again that he is not going to take Donald Trump to court, that he doesn’t disagree with anything Donald Trump does, and this has been no exception,” she said during an MSNBC interview Wednesday night. “I thought this might be the line, but nope. Yet again, he is refusing to lead in the moment and simply kowtowing to Trump.”
A question that remains unanswered: whether the funding will begin flowing quickly again once the government eventually reopens, an event that could happen in the coming days or could take weeks or months. Though Trump was hostile to the Gateway project during his first term, his new administration has professed more willingness to firmly support it – but Democrats, at least, are unlikely to take them at their word on that anymore.
“When I talked with [Transportation] Secretary Sean Duffy at his confirmation hearing, he said in that hearing that it is a national priority, the Gateway Tunnel, that it’s important for our nation and our economy,” Kim said. “So for them to use that nationally important project that is critical for so many families in New Jersey … and weaponize taxpayer dollars against people, is just disgusting.”
