“We call on President Trump to stop holding our livelihoods hostage, put working people and our economy first, and immediately release funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project”

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 6, 2026) — Brent Booker, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), made the following statement today regarding the blocking of funds for the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project.

Each day hundreds of LIUNA members and their building trades brothers and sisters report to work on the Gateway Hudson Tunnel to provide for their families. While they have shown up at the crack of dawn every day, the Trump Administration has failed to show up for them.

 

By blocking funds that were allocated for the $16 billion project, the Administration’s chaotic and baffling actions have put the livelihoods of LIUNA members at risk. This recklessness threatens to cause significant economic harm to New York and New Jersey and corresponding ripple effects across the nation.

 

It is reported that the Administration’s price to release funding to resume the project is to name New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after the president. This is a vain demand being leveraged at the expense of our nation’s infrastructure and the hardworking building trades members now out of a job. This is not America First– it is Trump First and American workers last.

 

We call on President Trump to stop holding our livelihoods hostage, put working people and our economy first, and immediately release funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project.

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The more than a half-million members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build the U.S. and Canada.