By David Shepardson
March 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to temporarily unfreeze about $3 billion in funding for rail projects in Chicago.
The Chicago Transit Authority sued the U.S. Transportation Department and its Federal Transit Administration on Friday, saying the federal government had withheld at least $9.5 million in reimbursements since October from grants previously approved under Democratic former President Joe Biden. The city had called
the funding suspension an unlawful act of political retaliation.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin granted the CTA's request for a temporary restraining order to require the funding but put his ruling on hold until Friday to give the federal government time to appeal.
The ruling is part of a widening legal battle between the Trump administration and Democratic-governed cities over the withholding of billions of dollars in previously approved federal transit funding, with similar lawsuits filed in New York.
The CTA on Tuesday called the ruling "a massive step toward restoration of funding for this historic project."
Durkin's ruling noted that the Transportation Department has only applied concerns about compliance with antidiscrimination laws to major projects in Chicago and New York, which indicates the reviews "are a pretextual basis for some other interest unrelated to actual compliance."
Chicago has the second-largest U.S. public transportation system, with about a million rides taken daily. The transit agency called the frozen grants crucial to modernize and expand the "L," Chicago's system of elevated and underground trains.
The frozen funding was to modernize century-old track structure and extend one rail line by 5.5 miles (8.9 km).
Chicago asked for an emergency order and warned that without funding it would halt the projects by Friday.
The lawsuit said the federal government is attempting "to hold hostage billions of dollars in federal grants for crucial infrastructure projects in the City of Chicago."
The Transportation Department did not immediately comment but said last week it would "fight to ensure federal dollars do not go towards discriminatory, illegal, and wasteful contracting practices."
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority also sued the administration last week after the government withheld nearly $60 million from a $7.7 billion subway project.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that the administration must keep making payments on the $16 billion New York Hudson Tunnel Project after the Department of Transportation suspended more than $200 million in payments.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Franklin Paul and Lisa Shumaker)
