MTA sues Trump administration to free Second Avenue subway funding

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, demanding it release nearly $60 million in withheld funds for the Second Avenue subway extension.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Claims, argues the administration has illegally withheld the funding since last fall, and in doing so is jeopardizing progress on a massive infrastructure project that would improve subway access along Manhattan's East Side.

The suit comes a week after a federal appellate court upheld a lower-court ruling ordering the administration to unfreeze $16 billion in federal funds for the Gateway Tunnel project in response to a lawsuit filed by New York and New Jersey.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement the transit agency is suing to ensure the subway extension remains "moving on schedule and on budget."

"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," Hochul said.

The MTA project is designed to cut down travel times for nearly 100,000 daily passengers by expanding the Q-train line north to 125th Street in East Harlem and eventually extending it south to the Lower East Side and lower Manhattan.

The White House and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but President Donald Trump’s top budget adviser, Russell Vought, said in a post on X last October that the Gateway and Second Avenue extension funds were being suspended "to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles," referring to programs aimed at encouraging diversity and equity in federal contracting.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who helped secure funding for the project under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, noted the effort to extend the East Side subway line has been long in the making. The idea was first floated in the 1920s.

"These projects are not political bargaining chips," Schumer said in a statement. "They are lifelines for New York’s economy and union workers, and we will fight until every dollar of promised funding is delivered."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.