
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday criticized the Trump administration for withholding $34 million in transit security funding for New York City’s subway and regional rail systems. According to a press release, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had been slated to receive the funds through the federal Transit Security Grant Program, established after 9/11 to support critical counterterrorism and transit security operations. But the agency was notified last week that it would be the only one among 21 applicants nationwide to be denied funding.

Administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the grants fund critical efforts to protect mass transit systems from security threats. The MTA serves a significant share of the nation’s transit riders, with more than six million daily trips taken across NYC Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, and the Metro-North.
In addition to roughly $12 million earmarked for the NYPD, the MTA had planned to use this year’s grant funding for a wide range of security projects. These included two cybersecurity initiatives designed to extend “cyber visibility” into the MTA’s key systems, as well as a cyber lab to develop and test protections for operational technology systems.
The funds were also intended to support the deployment of approximately 330 tactical cellular cameras to replace and upgrade existing unsecured devices, expand the MTA’s mass-destruction chemical detection system across nine subway lines and a commuter rail terminal, and deploy 375 MTAPD counterterrorism teams, among other measures.
After early reports that the MTA would be denied the security funding, the Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The court issued a temporary restraining order preventing FEMA from cutting the funds, though the agency has not yet confirmed whether the MTA’s funding has been restored.
In an official statement, Hochul blamed Republicans in Washington for the funding cuts, calling their actions an attempt to “defund the police” and put New Yorkers at risk.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe, from our streets to our subways, is my highest priority,” Hochul said. “Since 9/11, New York has relied on federal support to ensure that our transit system has the counterterrorism resources it needs to keep millions of riders safe every single day.”
She added, “The shocking actions of Washington Republicans to slash these funds and defund the police put New York City at risk. We will not tolerate these cuts; New York will take every action available to us — including the courts — to ensure the MTA gets this critical funding to keep millions of riders safe.”
The withholding of the funds is the latest episode in an ongoing conflict between New York State and the Trump administration. Last week, Hochul successfully secured the restoration of $187 million in counterterrorism and homeland security funding that the Department of Homeland Security had initially planned to cut.
According to the New York Times, Trump reversed the cuts following a phone call with Hochul, and White House officials said the reductions had been made without the president’s approval.
Other sources of federal funding for New York remain in contention, including $18 billion for the Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson River Gateway Tunnel. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the funds for the two projects are frozen pending a review of what the department calls “discriminatory, unconstitutional contracting processes,” citing “unconstitutional DEI principles,” as 6sqft previously reported.
Additionally, in May, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out threats to withhold funding and approvals for several transportation projects if NY did not cancel its congestion pricing program. A ruling in that case is expected this fall.
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