Area politicians react after President Trump says billions in Tri-State funding 'terminated'
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Local lawmakers are vowing to fight back after President Donald Trump said he "terminated" the $16 billion Hudson River tunnel project.
The Hudson Gateway Tunnel project to connect New Jersey to Penn Station has been in the works for years but may be dead after Trump said Wednesday he was killing it.
The massive infrastructure project is one of Trump's latest targets in an ongoing government shutdown scored by mass firings, cancellations and delays, and shuttered programs.
Hours after the shutdown began, the Trump administration moved to pause funding and review contracts for two major area transit projects, the Hudson Gateway Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway extension project. White House budget director Russ Vought claimed that the spending was based on "unconstitutional" diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
On Wednesday, the president seemed to go a step further.
"This is not only jobs. I mean the project in Manhattan, the project in New York. It's billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It's terminated. Tell him it's terminated," Trump said, taking aim at Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of his major opponents in the current shutdown standoff.
Schumer called the Hudson Gateway Project one of the most important infrastructure projects in America and said Trump's comments were vindictive and reckless.
"Donald Trump trying to kill it again is pure spite and stupidity. It's petty revenge politics that would screw hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters, choke off our economy, and kill good-paying jobs," Schumer said.
Other area officials were quick to react, many condemning Trump's plan to strip funding.
"If this system of transportation collapses, the Northeastern economy collapses, and the economy of the country collapses," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said. "Why be so shortsighted?"
Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim issued a joint statement that says the tunnel "isn't a Democratic project. It's a project that has had broad bipartisan support, including from his own Secretary of Transportation, who called it 'important' just days ago."
Congressman Josh Gottheimer released a statement saying, "President Trump is taking a sledgehammer to one of the most important infrastructure projects in the entire country. And with that, he's taking a sledgehammer to tens of thousands of jobs, to our economy, to labor, and to American competitiveness."
Work on the tunnel has already begun, with 500 union tradesmen on both sides of the river doing soil remediation and preparing to bore the tunnel.
Seventy percent of the project is funded by federal money after Congress approved the plan. And it's unclear whether the president can stop its funding, but even a pause will be costly.
"Should the president legally be able to stop funding until we can clap back, then that is going to raise prices because his tariffs are raising costs on everything, and so once we get shovels back in the ground after any delay, the price will only go up," said New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill.
The Hudson River rail tunnel is a long-delayed project whose path to construction has been full of political and funding twists and turns. It's intended to ease the strain on a 110-year-old tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. Hundreds of Amtrak and commuter trains carry hundreds of thousands of passengers per day through the tunnel, and delays can ripple up and down the East Coast between Boston and Washington.
The new tunnel is slated to open in 2035, and the entire project, including fixing the old tunnel, is expected to be completed by 2038.
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
