Trump admin freezes Chicago project funds, cites shutdown

The Trump administration has put on hold $2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects, primarily two efforts to improve the city’s transit system, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said Friday.

Vought’s announcement on the third day of the U.S. government shutdown comes on the heels of two other moves by the Trump administration targeting funding in cities and states led by Democrats.

President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have blamed Democrats in Congress for the shutdown, and Trump said Thursday that the shutdown had given him an “unprecedented opportunity” to cut what he called “Democrat Agencies.”

Vought on Wednesday first revealed that the Department of Transportation was freezing $18 billion in federal funding for two major infrastructure projects in New York City. Like the Chicago funding freeze, Vought and the DOT claim that the reason for the freeze in New York funds is to ensure the the money is not being used to pay for race-based contracting.

Later that same day, Vought said that the Department of Energy had cancelled nearly $8 billion in funding for climate-related projects and other efforts in 16 states, all of which were won by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

On Friday, Vought in a post on X wrote, “$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects–specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project–have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

“More info to come soon from @USDOT,” Vought added, referring to the Department of Transportation.

Both projects mentioned by Vought are overseen by the Chicago Transit Authority, which operates the city’s train and bus system.

The Red Line Extension project will extend that train line by 5.5 miles with four new stations between the existing terminal at 95th/Dan Ryan to 130th Street. The Red and Purple Modernization Project is reconstructing infrastructure along those color train lines.

The U.S. DOT later Friday morning said, “This week, USDOT issued an interim final rule (IFR) barring race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grants.”

“To continue implementation of this rule, USDOT today sent letters to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to inform them that two projects — the CTA Red Line Extension and the CTA Red and Purple Modernization Program – are also under administrative review to determine whether any unconstitutional practices are occurring,” the DOT said. “The remaining federal funding for…