Trump Administration Stops Gateway Project Funding

Earlier today, Governor Hochul met with construction workers to stand in solidarity and demand full funding after the Trump Administration’s attempt to stop funding the Gateway project.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Thank you, Gary. Let's get another round of applause for one of the most extraordinary union leaders in the entire country, Gary LaBarbara, representing the Building Trades here and across the State of New York.

I was listening to Gary talk about how the union movement created the middle class in this country. And I wasn't going to talk about this, but it also just hit me in the heart because my grandpa was a migrant farm worker in the wheat fields of South Dakota. Because nobody had hired the Irish back then. I'm Irish — you got a problem with that? Got a problem with that? We like to fight. What lifted my grandpa up when he finally found his way to the promised land of Buffalo, New York — don't laugh, okay? And he was given a union card when he took a job at a steel plant making steel at his hands. It was hot work, it was dirty work — those coke ovens were brutal. And you know who worked there next after grandpa and his brothers? My dad worked at that same place. And because he had that union card, they would lift themselves out of living at a trailer park where my mom and dad started.

I know the power of that union card. I had uncles who were iron workers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians — all in my family. So I have union blood running through my veins, and so they hurt union workers — they're hurting me, and you're my family. And I'm sick and tired of this assault on hardworking Americans and New Yorkers in particular, for God's sakes. You promise to create jobs and then you lay off a thousand people and don't think anything of it. This is the largest infrastructure project in America today. It is essential for the safety of 200,000 daily commuters. It's 10,000 jobs over the life of this, and I was so proud to stand here not just in 2022 as a brand new Governor and said, we're finally going to stop all the B.S. that has stopped this project for a decade and get it started.

And then we got the funding in 2024. We were on our way, I was so proud of this. I come down here and thank people for all the hard work they're doing and what happened this year? What happened this year? September 1, this project gets caught up in the political drama of Washington — the money stops.

We're like, that can't go on too long. We'll keep people working, keep coming back. We'll find the money, we'll find the money. We ran out of our money, we had to borrow some money. All of a sudden, a couple days ago the money runs out. Now in the meantime, we had [to file] a lawsuit, to go to a court to have a judge tell the President to release the money. You know who else told the President to release the money? I did. I called him four times as recently as last night. I said to the President, “I saw in Truth Social, you are criticizing this project for being over budget. And not on time, except it is. That's not the truth.” You guys have been out here working hard day after day and really brutally cold weather — It's been hard. I said, “Mr. President, I know for a fact a lot of these guys might have supported you.” It's okay, but these people supported you. How can you throw them out of their jobs? How can you tell them to go home? How do they go back to their families and tell their kids, I'm sorry I might not be able to bring in a paycheck — because the President who promised to create more jobs in this country just laid me off. Come on.

So I said, Mr. President, what am I supposed to tell everybody when I see them tomorrow, when I look in their eyes? People have been stressed out. This has been a rollercoaster, right? Am I coming? Am I going? Why is there so much chaos? And he said, “Give me a call tomorrow.” Now we got $77 million on top of the $30 [million] — we're only halfway home, but it cannot continue like this. When you give us the full $200 million that you owe us. I don't want to have this happen day after day, week after week, year after year. They need the certainty that Gary's talking about. How else are we going to build? The workers need to know that job is going to be there — the one they signed up for, or the one they trained for, the one they're so proud of.

It has to be there year after year until this project is done. And this project must be done. We cannot compromise the safety of the Northeastern corridor. Imagine if something happens if this tunnel fails, lives will be lost. It is urgent that we build this tunnel and do it now and stop these political delays that, as Gary said, is making all of you pawns in this. So let's stop the chaos, let's stop the insanity. Let them work, Mr. President — let them work. Let them get back to work right now.

Lastly, I'll say this: I am so proud to be Governor of a state that has men and women like you out here. So proud of what you're building, you're going to be able to go by someday. Now, I'm not saying you can point to a tunnel because it's underground, but you would be able to take your families through and show them what you did, what you dedicated your life and your sweat to, and the hard work and the stress, you got it done. That's why this city is so magnificent, because union members — maybe with some steel made by my grandpa in Buffalo — came all the way here and helped build this city the way it is. We're so proud of this, but I know that it would be nothing without all of you and without the movement, the labor union movement that lifted all of us up. So I'm going to say this one more time, Mr. President, you better be listening to us right now. You're going to join me in saying this.

Let them build. Let them build. Let them build. Let them build. Let them build. Let them build.

Let's get it done, everybody.

Thank you very much.