'It's A Cherry On Top': Chuck Schumer Celebrates Federal Government Funding 70% Of Gateway Project

3 months ago

At a Gateway funding agreement signing event, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) celebrated the Federal Government agreeing to pay 70% of the Gateway rail project.

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Transcript

00:00All right. It is great to be here today. Let me just some people have been acknowledged. There are a few more I want to acknowledge, so I'll do everybody.

00:09Chris Calori, as I said, our great Gateway Development Commissioner. When I first met him, I was skeptical. He was from New Jersey.

00:19But Corey was right. He did a great, great job. Thank you.

00:24Not here today, but someone who's been a great partner in helping us get all this money.

00:30My partner, friend in the Senate, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Let's have a round of applause for her.

00:37A great partner across the river. And we work so hard for the metropolitan area, which is sort of a seamless baton pass all the time,

00:49because Corey Booker is such a great representative, not only of New Jersey, but of the country.

00:59We have our two great governors. They're very happy today, as I'll mention in a minute.

01:07And they have been great, great partners. Not every governor previously was very much for Gateway, as you know, on either side of the river.

01:17But, but, but, but, these two great governors, Hochul and Murphy, have been every time you've needed them, they've been there.

01:26They understood that New Jersey and New York getting along was crucial to the future of the metropolitan area.

01:32Thank you, thank you, thank you. A round of applause for both of them.

01:39Somebody who has known transportation, I think, from the day he came out of the crib.

01:44I think he said Hudson River. A great leader, head of the, a ranking member of the Judiciary Committee now,

01:52but a transportation advocate all the way, and a great partner who's responsible for so much that's happened in New York transportation-wise, Jerry Nadler.

02:05We have our great Amtrak board chair. I think he's done a great job, and I've made sure he's stayed as board chair for a long time, Tony Kosha.

02:19Pete Buttigieg lives and breathes transportation. He couldn't be here today, but again, anytime you call the guy, he calls you back within a couple of hours,

02:27and is always there, no BS, anything like that. And one of the reasons he's great, there are many, he has a great deputy secretary,

02:37a former Schumer staffer for nine years, and then a Moynihan, no, first a Moynihan staffer.

02:44Moynihan, as I always say, when he was leaving, he said, Schumer, I'm going to give you, and in Moynihan language, a gift.

02:52Polly Trottenberg, and she sure was a gift.

03:01Our acting administrator, the FTA administrator, Vanderpool from the Bronx.

03:09She told me Castle Hill. She went to the same great high school as Sonia Sotomayor, and that's great.

03:18We also have Amit Bose, the FRA administrator. Where's Amit? I didn't see him. Ah, there you are.

03:28We have three former, two former Schumer staffers who now work on Gateway, and they did a great job working for me,

03:36and they're in the right place to make sure this happens, and that is Rob Hickman and Leanne Sinpatanasekul.

03:43I think I finally got that right after all those years.

03:49Alicia Glenn is here on the Gateway Development Board, always caring about our area from the Port Authority,

03:59a bi-state agency, Rick Cotton and Mr. O'Toole.

04:06And one of the most important, not the only, but most important reasons we're doing this is for labor.

04:12We made sure that every bit of this tunnel is built by well-qualified, well-paid construction labor here.

04:22Union people, raise your hands and a round of applause for all of you. There are too many to mention.

04:28I'm a labor guy all the way. Okay. So it's great to be here.

04:33Now today we're here to announce, really, this time it's real, to cross the finish line on one of the most challenging

04:43and most important milestones for Gateway, what's called in Washington the FFGA,

04:50and it stands for the Federal Full Funding Grant Agreement.

04:55The Gateway race was truly a marathon, with its twists, its turns, its bumps.

05:01But we laced up, we kept up the pace, and we made it.

05:08So today I'm proud to say the massive $6.8 billion infusion of federal funds,

05:18the light at the end of the Gateway tunnel, is signed, sealed, and delivered.

05:25And you know I always have something. It has a cherry on top.

05:38Why is it a cherry? This is for the governors.

05:42Because originally our deal was the federal government would pay 50%, we are paying 70%,

05:50which means New Jersey and New York taxpayers have to pay less.

05:56Every time I've been here in the past, I've held up a hard hat.

05:59So my great press guy Angelo said, I got something new, cherries.

06:03I said, oh, okay. Here they are, folks. It's a cherry on top.

06:07A lot of cherries. 70% is a lot of cherries.

06:12And I'll leave them here for any of the next speakers who would like to indulge.

06:20So furthermore, construction now has begun on both sides of the Hudson.

06:25It's all systems go. No turning back.

06:29But let me take a step back for a second.

06:32When I took on Gateway, when it was do or die trying,

06:37I made an announcement that I would deliver the federal government at 50% of the cost.

06:42And I knew if we really worked hard, we could get it higher.

06:46So today we can shout it out. The federal share of Gateway is now more than 70%.

06:53This is unheard of, but I'm majority leader. This is New York. We go big.

07:00Today, 6.8 billion FFGA allows other funds that I announced previously with my colleagues,

07:07and it brings the federal total to $11 billion.

07:11So that's 11 billion plus 70% Fed share.

07:15These are hard dollars which will translate into hard hats working on the job.

07:22And again, I want to thank my partners, the governors of New York and New Jersey,

07:26who have put in a significant amount of dollars as well to make this happen.

07:31Thank you, thank you, thank you.

07:33With today's lock on the FFGA, New York and New Jersey can now free up extra money to put into other transit funds.

07:41So this is huge for mass transit and transportation across New York.

07:46And my strategy in the bipartisan infrastructure and jobs law was always to try and craft it

07:53so New York Fed dollars would be maximized.

07:56And let's face it, Gateway is the most consequential infrastructure proposal in all of America.

08:05As many of you know, for a long time now, this project has been my passion.

08:10It's been a labor of love.

08:12Ever since Governor Christie pulled out the funds, I knew we had to do something.

08:16There were lots of twists and turns.

08:19Donald Trump said, you build the wall, maybe I'll give you Gateway.

08:22I told him, NFW, we're going to get this done on our own.

08:27And after many false starts and obstacles placed in our way, Gateway's full speed ahead, all systems go.

08:34We know why it's so important.

08:36The rail tunnels under the Hudson River are an essential artery that moves countless people and goods along the entire eastern seaboard.

08:43If the artery gets backed up, the heart of our national economy ceases to pump.

08:48America would go into recession overnight.

08:51Millions of people would lose their jobs.

08:53The GW Bridge, the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels would be jammed with traffic bumper to bumper 24-7.

08:59Pollution would exponentially increase.

09:02So Gateway was a huge priority.

09:05And a lot of these points and why and how I led the bipartisan infrastructure and jobs law to passage is these reasons.

09:14But there were many others.

09:16Across the country, every week, senators, congressmen are cutting ribbons and putting shovels in the ground to rebuild our infrastructure.

09:26And President Biden gets a tremendous, tremendous amount of credit for pushing that priority and so many others.

09:37It's good for New York, good for America.

09:40The president knows this.

09:42Look, we're a country that can and should do big projects like Gateway.

09:47And the Hudson Tunnel project now moves into full construction.

09:50That's it.

09:52We spent a lot of time getting here.

09:54But because of its importance, Gateway's been a mission and I want to assure all the people here working on it.

09:59Any bumps in the road, logs on the tracks, you'll have Senator Schumer as well as my colleagues making sure that this goes forward to full completion.

10:09No ands, ifs, or buts.

10:14So, we're here.

10:17I brought the president here to see it a while back, you may remember.

10:20The Trump administration delayed the work for years, as I mentioned.

10:24But we never backed down and now there's no turning back.

10:28I was told now the number of, we said 72,000 direct jobs, but Chris just said it's up to 95,000 jobs.

10:3795,000 jobs.

10:38Every one of those people who's working on this gets a good paycheck.

10:42They spend it in the stores, in the restaurants, and all the others.

10:45So, it's pumping money into the New York, New Jersey economy in a way we've hardly ever seen before.

10:51It's a great thing.

10:52It's all systems go.

10:54Thank you, everybody.

'It's A Cherry On Top': Chuck Schumer Celebrates Federal Government Funding 70% Of Gateway Project

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