Construction on the nation’s largest infrastructure project can resume after a court ordered the Trump administration to release funding it had withheld to gain leverage over congressional Democrats from New York.
On Feb. 18, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the U.S. Department of Transportation released nearly $130 million in funding for the $16 billion Gateway tunnel project in an ongoing lawsuit. The rail tunnel project, under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York, is meant to bolster tunnels along the Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail line in the United States.
The funding resuming is a blow to President Donald Trump, who had vowed to terminate the project in a budget fight with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.
"This funding freeze was unlawful from the start," James, who has herself been targeted for legal retribution by Trump, said in a statement. "We took swift action in court, and now every dollar that was illegally withheld has been released."