Trump officials say they will release hold on funding for Second Avenue Subway

WASHINGTON — The Trump Administration on Thursday backed off its hold on nearly $60 million in federal funds for the Second Avenue Subway extension.

The change of heart came as both sides were set to go to federal court in Washington to hash out the New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s demands for the administration to release the money.

"We took the Trump Administration to court after they illegally froze funding for the Second Avenue Subway," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a posting on the social media site X. "Today, they backed down. The freeze is over. For East Harlem and every New Yorker who relies on our subways, release our money immediately."

MTA Chair Janno Lieber received the news in a letter from the U.S. Department of Transportation, digitally signed by Sean Metrice Clayton, acting deputy director of the DOT’s Office of Civil Rights.

That letter reiterated previous claims that the department had uncovered "troubling information" revealing that MTA and its prime contractors have engaged in contracting practices that consider race and sex as part of both its prime and subcontract bidding and contract awards.

But the letter goes on to state, "In light of MTA’s agreement to take corrective actions, DOT has completed its review and is resuming the processing of reimbursement requests pursuant to normal requests."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), responded in a statement with a different view of events. "After a nonsensical and illegal delay by the Trump administration, which forced the MTA to take them to court, an appearance before the judge finally got them to come to their senses and lift this damaging funding blockade," Schumer 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.

Schumer helped secure funding for the project under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, but the idea dates to the 1920s.

Schumer and other New York Democrats have accused President Donald Trump’s top budget adviser, Russell Vought, and other administration officials as using transportation and other funding for New York as political bargaining chips.

"The Trump administration has used New Yorkers as political pawns by holding up federal dollars for important projects and harming the livelihoods of our union workers," New York’s junior senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, said. "I’ll keep fighting to protect New York from the Trump administration’s reckless attacks on our state."