New York transit officials sue Trump administration to restore subway project funding

NEW YORK (AP) — The transit agency in charge of New York City’s subway system sued the Trump administration Tuesday, accusing it of breach of contract for withholding almost $60 million in federal funding that was supposed to help build new stations in Manhattan.

The suit from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the latest in a series of legal battles between the federal government and officials in New York and New Jersey over funding for transportation infrastructure projects in the region — including a reconstruction project for New York’s Penn Station, a new rail tunnel between the two states and New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee on drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan.

The latest litigation, filed in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, said that since the government last year announced it was suspending funding for a project to the extend the Second Avenue subway line, the U.S. Department of Transportation has withheld over $58.6 million — “with more to become due soon.”

The project is supposed to cost $7.7 billion, with the federal government paying around $3.4 billion of that, the suit says. Without the federal funds, the state agency has had to divert money from elsewhere, but if the suspension continues, the work will eventually come to “a screeching halt,” the suit argues.

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New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul argued the situation has the “entire project at risk.”

“Once again, New York has been forced to sue the Trump Administration to stop them from erratically shutting off billions of dollars in previously committed infrastructure funding,” she said in a statement.

In response to the lawsuit, the federal DOT said it is “committed to ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. We are considering all legal avenues.”

The Republican administration announced in October a hold on $18 billion in funding for the subway extension as well as the new tunnel beneath the Hudson River, citing a government shutdown and the administration’s concern that funding was being unconstitutionally spent based on diversity, equity and inclusion principles.

A federal judge in February ordered the administration to restore funding to the tunnel.

The first section of the long-planned Second Avenue line opened in 2017 with new stations on the Upper East Side. The new project would add three stops to extend the line into East Harlem