The Trump administration has paused $2.1 billion in federal funding for Chicago subway projects, escalating tensions with Democratic leaders amid the ongoing government shutdown. According to Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House says the freeze is necessary to prevent contracts that may involve racial considerations from moving forward.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has informed the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) that it will review the projects before releasing any funds, citing concerns about “discriminatory, illegal, and wasteful contracting practices,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Similar reviews are affecting New York, where $18 billion in funding for major transit initiatives—including a Hudson River tunnel and a subway extension—will remain on hold until the government examines the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in contracting. The DOT noted that states like Illinois and New York “promote race- and sex-based contracting and other racial preferences as public policy,” per Politico. The agency appeared to be specifically referencing the CTA’s use of the DOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which the administration wants to revise to remove “race and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the funding freeze “political payback” tied to the stalled federal budget process, according to the Journal. The freeze comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain furloughed and a Senate vote approaches on a short-term funding measure, which is widely expected to fail. Democrats are pushing for any deal to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and provide additional health care funding.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have not commented. Illinois Representative Mike Quigley, a Democrat, criticized the move, calling it “a very bad day for public transit in the country when it becomes weaponized,” according to the AP. Quigley described the subway project as “the most important new transit initiative in Chicago in 50 years.”