Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Ahead Of President Biden’s Visit To Celebrate Progress On The Gateway Tunnel Thanks To The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by the Senate in 2021 is delivering for critical projects like the Gateway. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Tomorrow is a big day for New Yorkers as we welcome President Biden to celebrate progress on the most important infrastructure project in America, the new Gateway rail tunnel.

This day has been a decade in the making. The Northeast Corridor is the busiest passenger rail line in the country, and the crossing under the Hudson is its most important nexus point. But for far too long, these two single-track tunnels have been badly in need of repairs.

After Hurricane Sandy devastated New York and the experts said there’s limited time in which they will be operable, fixing the tunnel became one of my greatest passions, a labor of love, because I love New York, and without it New York’s economy would come screeching to a halt. For years, I worked hard bringing together public and private partners from New York, New Jersey, and Amtrak to get everyone on the same page on Gateway.

We met a lot of resistance along the way. When President Trump was in office, he tried to freeze progress on the Gateway project altogether, going as far as holding it hostage in negotiations over the border wall.

Still, I was proud that even during the Trump Administration I was able to double, triple, quadruple – and in one case, increase tenfold – the funding for various federal spending accounts pertaining to Gateway. Because I knew that one day, President Trump would no longer be in office.

Now, thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, and with great help from President Biden, Gateway is moving forward. Under our infrastructure law, tens of billions of more dollars have been dedicated to federal accounts which will support Gateway and many, many other large projects in the country, and this is something I’m very, very proud to celebrate.

I will have more to say tomorrow in New York tomorrow, but today I want to affirm once again that progress on Gateway is a very important example of how our infrastructure bill is making life better for millions of everyday Americans. 

Building two new tunnels and updating the existing tunnels will lead to work with good-paying union jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, and lead to a burst of economic activity for decades to come.

I want to thank President Biden for making the trip to New York tomorrow, and I am happy to say that after a lot of hard work and a lot of stubborn persistence, our efforts are finally paying off.

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