The Trump administration froze around $ 18 billion for two major infrastructure projects in New York while waiting for an exam to guarantee that funding is not “according to the unconstitutional Dei principles,” a senior official said on Wednesday.
Funding is allocated to the Hudson River Tunnel project known as Gateway, and the metro project of the second avenue, said the director of the Russell Vought Budget Office.
Vought’s announcement occurred on the first day of the US government’s closure after the Congress did not adopt Stopgap financing invoices which have maintained federal agencies and services for at least seven weeks.
The Trump administration blamed the two best Democrats in Congress – the head of the Minority of the Senate Chuck Schumer and the chief of the Hakeem Jeffries House – for this closure. The two Democrats are from New York.
Gateway, which costs more than $ 16 billion, should build another rail tunnel under the Hudson river to add a capacity to two single track tunnels that transport Amtrak and New Jersey Transit Trains to Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan from New Jersey, and Vice Versa.
The metro of the second avenue is a metro project in progress along the east side of Manhattan.
Vought announced freezing in articles on the social media site X.
“About $ 18 billion in New York infrastructure projects have been suspended to ensure that funding is not circulating according to the unconstitutional Dei principles,” wrote Vought.
Dei refers to the policies of diversity, equity and inclusion, which have become a target for the Trump administration.
The Director of the American Management and Budget Office (OMB) Russell (Russ) Vought speaks to journalists outside the west wing of the White House on July 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty images
It was not immediately clear which sparked the frost on this basis.
But the Ministry of Transport later declared that the “position of the DBE program of Secretary Sean Duffy is clear – subsidizing infrastructure contracts with the dollars of taxpayers based on discriminatory principles is unconstitutional, contrary to civil rights laws and a waste of resources of taxpayers”.
The dowry in a statement, said that he had issued “a final rule (IFR) with the exception of contractual requirements based on race and sex of federal subsidies” and that it had sent “letters to New York to inform them that their two mega projects – the metro of the 2nd avenue and the Hudson tunnel – are in the process of being made to determine if not unexpected practices.” “”
“The ministry focuses on these projects because they are undoubtedly the biggest infrastructure initiatives in the Western hemisphere, and the American people want to see them finished quickly and effectively,” said the dowry.
“Until the rapid administrative examination of the USDOT is completed, the project’s reimbursements cannot be processed, including a disbursement of $ 300 million for the metro of the 2nd avenue. The remaining federal funding of these projects totals nearly $ 18 billion.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: “The bad news continues to come.”
“They try to ensure that cultural wars are the reason,” said Hochul at a press conference to discuss the closure of the federal government, according to the Associated Press. “This is what a partnership with Washington looks like when we hold out here. We have done our part. We are ready to build. It is in progress.”
“And now we realize that they have decided to put their own interpretation of good culture before our needs, the needs of a nation,” said the governor.
The dowry said that its project exams would take more time than normal due to the government’s closure.
“Thanks to the closure of the closure of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies, however, the USDOT examination of New York’s unconstitutional practices will take more time,” said the dowry.
“Without budget, the ministry was forced to use the staff of civil rights responsible for carrying out this exam.
“This is another unfortunate victim of the reckless decision of radical democrats to hold the federal government hostage to grant illegal immigrant benefits,” said the dowry.
