By Tom Ozimek
The federal government will withhold $2.1 billion for two Chicago infrastructure projects, the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced, citing a new rule that bars race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grant programs.
The agency said in an Oct. 3 statement that the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) Red Line Extension and Red and Purple Modernization Program have been placed under administrative review “to determine whether any unconstitutional practices are occurring.”
The suspension follows similar moves in New York earlier this week, where $18 billion for the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway projects was also put on hold, amid similar concerns around constitutionality.
White House Budget Director Russell Vought took to X to say that the reason the two projects have been put on hold is to “ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”
The pause stems from an interim final rule the Transportation Department issued on Sept. 30 that rewrites the agency’s longstanding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which aims to assist small businesses owned and controlled by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.” The rule now states the department must operate its programs “in a nondiscriminatory fashion,” and it specifically “removes race- and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution.”
Under the new standard, all applying businesses must make individualized showings of disadvantage to qualify as DBEs. The rule eliminates automatic presumptions previously granted to women and members of certain racial and ethnic groups.
“The government has no compelling justification for engaging in overt race or sex discrimination in the awarding of contracts in the absence of clear and individualized evidence that the award is needed to redress the economic effects of actual previous discrimination suffered by the awardee,” the rule states.
The Transportation Department said the review was prompted in part by the CTA’s own disclosures that 21 percent of spending on the Red and Purple Modernization project has gone to firms certified as disadvantaged business enterprises—about 119 companies in total. The agency said that such practices—both in Chicago and New York—may conflict with the new constitutional standard.
The funding freeze threatens to delay Chicago’s long-planned Red Line Extension, which would add four new stations on the city’s South Side, a project promoted as expanding access for low-income neighborhoods. The broader Red and Purple Modernization is aimed at easing bottlenecks on the North Side by rebuilding aging stations and track structures.
Similar funding suspensions in New York have already drawn sharp criticism from Democratic leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the decision “stupid and counterproductive” and accused the administration of weaponizing federal dollars to punish political opponents. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) issued a statement calling the move “baseless” and harmful to commuters.
The interim rule was issued after several federal courts struck down race- and sex-based presumptions in federal contracting programs and after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which invalidated race-conscious university admissions.
“Together, these critical reviews are intended to ensure no additional federal dollars go towards discriminatory, illegal, and wasteful contracting practices,” the Transportation Department said of the Chicago and New York reviews. “The American people don’t care what race or gender construction workers, pipefitters, or electricians are. They just want these massive projects finally built quickly and efficiently.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded to the funding freeze in a statement on social media, accusing the Trump administration of playing politics and making life harder for working Chicagoans.
“At a time when federal agents are sowing chaos in Chicago, the Trump administration is holding bipartisan funding hostage,” he wrote on X. “It’s attempting to score political points but is instead hurting our economy and the hardworking people who rely on public transit to get to work or school.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the CTA and the office of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for comment.
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