Commission members say any disruption will have ripple effects up and down the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands of commuters travel through the tunnel daily.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026 9:14PMConstruction work on the nation's largest infrastructure project is expected to stop by the end of next week unless the Trump administration restores more than $4 billion in federal funding that was frozen in October.
During a Gateway Project board meeting in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, the commission said contractors haven't stopped working on the rail tunnel between New Jersey and Penn Station in New York City.posted on Truth Social"To play political games in light of the immense consequences of not continuing this vital project, is a gross violation of the president's violation to the public," Schumer said. The existing tunnel has been plagued by delays from an aging infrastructure and damage from Superstorm Sandy. And 75% of the $16 billion cost is funded by federal money -- money approved by Congress. Some elected officials have floated the idea of taking the fight to court, but the commission says it isn't ready to take that step yet. "At this point it feels like Donald Trump wants something from somebody and he's attaching the Gateway funding to something else and I don't know what that is, but the sense we have is that it's just a kind of a negotiation, which it shouldn't be," said Tom Wright, President and CEO of the Regional Plan Association. A White House spokesperson confirmed Tuesday they do want to negotiate in a statement that said in part, "There is nothing stopping Democrats from prioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens and getting this project back on track." Commission members say any disruption will have ripple effects up and down the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands of commuters travel through the tunnel daily. "We are living on borrowed time, the existing tunnels are going to fail more frequently and greater disruptions eventually, Amtrak's gonna have to take one of them out of service and close it and it's gonna have to close it for not weeks or months, but probably years to make major repairs," Wright said. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said her state will fight for the "essential project that will make commutes easier and improve quality of life for residents in the Garden State." "The president's refusal to fund the Gateway Tunnel project is not only an illegal attack on New Jersey but also shows a reckless disregard for our economy and the livelihoods of working families," Sherrill said. "New Jersey and New York make up the most powerful economic region in the world, and this is the most urgent and consequential infrastructure project in the country. If the president does not restore funding to this project, which I helped secure while serving in Congress, he will single-handedly kill nearly 100,000 jobs and $20 billion in economic activity." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the announcement that construction will shut down is the "latest collateral damage of Donald Trump's vindictive quest to hurt New Yorkers no matter the cost." "The stakes are enormous: hundreds of thousands of daily commuters, 10,000 union jobs and billions of dollars in economic benefits all now imperiled by Donald Trump's attempts to rip away infrastructure funding from New York," Hochul said. "Make no mistake, the Gateway Tunnel is vital to the economy of this state and the entire region, and I will fight like hell to ensure it gets built."
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