MTA sues Trump administration over order to halt Second Avenue subway funding
Source: Gothamist/WNYC New York, NY
Published Mar 17, 2026 at 10:25 a.m. ET
Modified Mar 17, 2026 at 11:28 a.m. ET
The MTA sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for withholding federal funding for the expansion of the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims, comes five months after the president’s budget director, Russell Vought, announced the White House would stop distributing a $3.4 billion grant for the project. Vought at the time wrote on social media the funding would not flow while the feds reviewed the MTA’s practices for issuing contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses.
MTA officials have since said they’ve complied with the review, but the funding was still not released. Now, the agency argues the U.S. Department of Transportation is in breach of contract. The agency wrote in the lawsuit that it's owed $60 million from the federal government, which "has required the MTA to divert millions of dollars away from other critical transportation projects in order to fill the gap."
The Trump administration last fall also withheld grants and loans for the Hudson River tunnel project, known as Gateway. The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey sued the feds over the funding freeze for that project, and a Manhattan federal judge ordered the federal Department of Transportation to release the money.
“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,” Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in a statement.
Read more: https://gothamist.com/news/mta-sues-trump-administration-over-order-to-halt-second-avenue-subway-funding
Link to Gov. Hochul STATEMENT - Statement from Governor Kathy Hochul
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