Majority Leader Schumer Remarks Celebrating The Announcement Of Funding Of The Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project Made Possible By The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act

New York, N.Y. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke at an event with President Biden and New York and New Jersey leaders to celebrate the funding for the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project. This project is one of many funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which was passed last Congress. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

It is so great to be here to celebrate a major milestone in the most consequential infrastructure project in all of America — Gateway! 

Now, as many of you know, for a long time now, this project has been my passion. It's a labor of love.

And after many false starts and obstacles placed in our way, Gateway is full speed ahead. 

With today’s new dollars, Gateway’s future is assured. Finally, finally, finally, we can say Gateway will be built. So, hooray, hooray, hooray – here comes Gateway!

I want to thank Governor Hochul, Governor Murphy, Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mayor Adams, Secretary Buttigieg, Deputy Secretary Polly [Trottenberg], who worked for me for many years, for all their help on this project.

Now, why is this project so important? Because the rail tunnels under the Hudson River are an essential artery that moves countless people and goods along the entire Eastern Seaboard. 

If that artery gets backed up, then the heart of our national economy would cease to pump. America would go into a recession overnight. Millions of people would lose their jobs. The George Washington Bridge, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels would be jammed with traffic 24/7. Pollution would increase exponentially.

Now, all too often, we as a society fail to look far enough ahead, to plan for the worst-case scenario in advance and avoid it, taking real steps to prevent it.

But in this case, thankfully, we are looking ahead.

We are acting – and Gateway is finally coming down the tracks.

Now, my late father, who passed away a year ago, taught me a lot of lessons that still stick with me – he’s right here right now – and the most important was this: that if you know what you’re doing is right, then if you persist, and persist, and persist, then you will succeed.

So we have persisted — and now, we are succeeding.

When I started talking about Gateway more than a decade ago, there were a lot of people who refused to see the light. We all remember Governor Christie abruptly pulling the plug on the first iteration of Gateway, one of the worst decisions that any governor on either side of the Hudson has made. We had to start all over again.

I worked hard to stand up the Gateway Development Corporation, and we got the States of New York and New Jersey to each agree to contribute 25 percent of the cost of the project in exchange for the federal government contributing 50 percent. Thank you Governor Hochul and Governor Murphy.

We painstakingly negotiated the technical principles of a financing agreement, where federal loans to the states would count as a local share of funding.

Once again, we finally had the pieces back in place – and once again, a Republican bully tried to wreak havoc. As soon as Donald Trump took office, he set about sabotaging Gateway by halting all administrative approvals on completely bogus grounds. He said he wouldn’t even negotiate on Gateway until there was money to build his wall. He shut down the government for weeks.

When he invited me into the Oval Office to try and force an agreement to build the wall and then maybe Gateway, I had a few choice Brooklyn words for him: No effing way, Mr. President.

Now, that doesn’t mean we didn’t make any progress during those years. We worked hard in the delegation, New Jersey and New York, to secure tens of billions of dollars in appropriations for various federal spending accounts that Gateway could use once President Trump was gone.

But what I couldn’t have anticipated then is that the best, is that the person who would replace Trump would also happen to be the best possible person anywhere to move Gateway forward: Mr. Amtrak himself, Joe. Biden.

A man, a president, who is more interested in tearing down walls that separate us than he is in building them. Who, thanks to his deft negotiating and deep relationships on Capitol Hill, was able to transform the cruel illusion of Trump’s so-called “infrastructure week” – after week after week – into an infrastructure decade that will be funded by the amazing $1.2-trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that we passed into law.

And we’re going to build this infrastructure decade – where are our union folks? – with tens of thousands of new good-paying union jobs! All union – all good-paying. We love you.

As Majority Leader, I made sure that the bipartisan infrastructure law included formulas and allocations that will provide ample funding for Gateway and many many many other good projects across New York, New Jersey, and across the country.

And one of these programs that we got funded is the MEGA Program, which is providing the $292 million grant that we are celebrating today to build the next phase of the Box Tunnel.

This is the first and necessary starting point of Gateway. But it is also one of the hardest parts of Gateway because it cuts through solid Manhattan bedrock to form the entry point of the two new underwater rail tunnels that are the centerpiece of the project.

Thanks to this historic $292-million investment, led by the President, passed by my Senate and House colleagues, Gateway is finally leaving the station.

Now you can use whatever train metaphor you want, anyone you want – but get on the “Joe Biden Express” now because we are not stopping!

For four years, the former president was shoveling you-know-what. And now, we’re going to put real shovels in the ground wielded by real American workers!

That’s the basic contrast between this presidency and the last. Empty rhetoric versus experienced leadership. Schoolyard bullying versus building consensus. Personal grievances versus getting things done.

And so, it is my absolute, wonderful, wonderful, great pleasure to welcome to my beloved city the man who knows infrastructure, public transit better than anybody in America, and who is going to make sure that we Get. Gateway. Done!

The President of the United States –  Joseph Robinette Biden.  

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