Trump Targets Chicago Transit Money In Latest Shutdown Fight Salvo

Federal funding for Chicago Transit Authority improvements is the latest target in the Trump administration's pressure campaign on Democrats to reopen the government — the second large-scale infrastructure project the White House has frozen as the shutdown enters day three.

On Friday, White House budget director Russ Vought posted on social media that the administration had paused $2.1 billion in federal funding for Chicago’s Red Line Extension and Red and Purple Modernization Project “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.” On the first day of the shutdown, the administration said it was pausing federal funds for an $18 billion project to revitalize rail tunnels under the Hudson River near New York City, a key priority for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The Chicago funding pause is the latest White House effort to make the government shutdown as painful as possible for Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Democrats in Congress as a whole.

The Chicago Transit Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat.

In a statement, the Transportation Department said it is scrutinizing the Chicago Transit Authority's projects to make sure "no additional federal dollars go towards discriminatory, illegal, and wasteful contracting practices," and alluded to the transit agency's use of DOT's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, or DBE.

“Illinois, like New York, is well known to promote race- and sex-based contracting and other racial preferences as a public policy,” the agency said.

The Chicago Transit Authority says on its website that its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program shows its dedication to the success of small businesses that are owned "by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals by promoting contracting opportunities to DBEs within transit."

Getting rid of policies that boost diversity, equity and inclusion has been a priority of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Trump administration writ large.

“Secretary Duffy and USDOT are committed to conducting these reviews as fast as possible so reimbursements can move forward,” DOT said. “Unfortunately, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries’ decision to shut down the government has negatively affected the Department’s staffing resources for carrying out this important analysis.”

Just ahead of the government shutdown, on Sept. 30, DOT put out an interim final rule that is geared to ensure the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program “removes race and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution.”

The Chicago action follows a similar pause in New York City in which the White House held up $18 billion on two major projects: the Gateway Program, which plans to provide a new train tunnel beneath the Hudson River to connect commuters between New Jersey and New York City, and the Second Avenue Subway line.