Chicago: Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily release $2 billion in CTA Red Line funds

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily unfreeze approximately $2 billion in funding for the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line Extension and Red & Purple Line Modernization projects.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin granted a request from the CTA for a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration, which has frozen the funds since last October while it said it was reviewing the projects "to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting."

In his ruling, Durkin noted that when the CTA applied for federal funding for the Red Line Extension and Red & Purple Line Modernization projects, federal regulations required them to set goals for participation by subcontractors owned by women and minorities.

However, after the grants were awarded, the Trump administration set new rules eliminating such requirements, and Durkin ruled it was improper to retroactively apply new rules to grants that had already been awarded. ................(more)

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-temporarily-release-2-billion-in-cta-red-line-funds/