NEW YORK CITY — The Trump administration on Thursday agreed to release nearly $60 million in withheld funds for the Second Avenue subway extension project in Manhattan.
The federal government said they would restart payments in a letter to federal claims court in Washington D.C., according to The New York Times.
The MTA sued the federal government for breach of contract over the withheld payments in March.
The lawsuit was filed after Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget director, said that a $3.4 billion grant would no longer move forward because of what he called "unconstitutional DEI principles" in October, Patch previously reported.
Vought was referring specifically to DOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, which issues contracts to businesses owned by women and minority groups.
The MTA argued in court that they had been in compliance with the department's policies.
Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the new development.
“We took the Trump Administration to court after they illegally froze funding for the Second Avenue subway,” she said in a social media post. “Today, they backed down. The freeze is over.”
The Second Avenue Subway line, which currently stops at East 96th Street, was in the process of being extended to 106th Street, 116th Street, and then 125th Street, officials said, when the funding was frozen.
Early work on the tunnel construction was meant to begin this winter.
A tentative completion was set for 2032, according to the MTA. The agency had said that further disruptions could delay the project even more.
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