Albany, NY and Trenton, NJ – Over the last two days, the legislative bodies of New York and New Jersey have passed identical bills under the name the Gateway Development Commission Act. The bill is the product of a six-way negotiation between both houses of the legislature and both governors in New York and New Jersey, and was shepherded through the legislative process by New York Assemblymember Amy R. Paulin, the chair of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, and Senator Loretta Weinberg, the Senate Majority Leader. Both bills passed with bipartisan majorities.

The legislation establishes the bi-state Gateway Development Commission to act as a coordinating agency for the facilitation of projects related to the stretch of the Northeast Corridor railway between Newark, New Jersey and Penn Station, including the rehabilitation and construction of tunnels under the Hudson River. Once established, this public commission would take over oversight for the Gateway Program from the Gateway Development Corporation, a New Jersey not-for-profit, which would make the project eligible to receive certain federal infrastructure grants that are indispensable to the successful completion of the project.

“I am grateful for the leadership and partnership of my New Jersey counterpart, Senator Loretta Weinberg, and for the leaders in the Assembly and Senate in both states, as well as our Governors,” said Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale). “The Gateway Program is perhaps the most important and urgently needed infrastructure project in the United States. We are prepared to make the Gateway a model public works and infrastructure project that will sustain our economy, allow for reliable transportation for our constituents and the entire northeast region of the United States, and last for generations.”

“We are grateful to Assemblywoman Amy Paulin for her leadership, cooperation and commitment to reform as we negotiated compromise legislation with the two governors,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen). “The most important part of the bill is the binding commitment on New Jersey and New York to contribute on an equal basis to the local share cost of building the new Gateway rail tunnel, rebuilding the Portal Bridge and repairing the century-old tunnels that were so severely damaged by Sandy.”

“I’d like to thank Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and our colleagues in the New Jersey State Legislature, Governors Cuomo and Murphy and Amtrak for their partnership, vision and fierce advocacy on behalf of the Gateway Development Commission Act and the entire transformative project,” said Senator Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), who sponsored the bill in the New York State Senate. “Our shared leadership in the face of Washington intransigence is a testament to our collective desire to improve our precious public transit infrastructure, the building blocks of our strong states and region. The continued success of the states of New York and New Jersey and the entire Northeast Corridor rest on robust and reliable transportation options. I look forward to improved, more frequent Amtrak and New Jersey Transit service in New York, as well as the related and interconnected system-wide improvements to local commuter rail as we boldly and rationally embrace the Gateway Project and move to bring it to fulsome fruition.”

“While the federal government continues to stall funding for the Gateway Project, New Jersey is taking action to invest in infrastructure, keep commuters safe and build our national economy,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), who sponsored the bill in the New Jersey Assembly. “We will no longer sit idly by waiting for the Trump administration to support a project that affects the lives of thousands of residents along the East coast. This commission will help to jumpstart the process of bringing our infrastructure into the 21^stcentury, the creation of jobs and supports the residents of our community. Commuters and residents from both states deserve to see improvements in the rail line, which are long overdue.”

The Northeast Corridor is the most utilized passenger rail line in the country, with almost 800,000 passenger trips a day traveling on more than 2,000 trains. However, the tunnels running beneath the Hudson River have experienced heavy amounts of deterioration due to age, use, and damage resulting from Superstorm Sandy. Additionally, the volume of service on the NEC has long required increased capacity to meet demand, and to provide efficient and reliable service.

The Gateway Project envisions to address these concerns comprehensively by increasing track, tunnel, bridge, and station capacity including a new, two-track Hudson River tunnel. All told, the Gateway Program is estimated to double the number of passenger trains that can run under the Hudson. The program would also make critical infrastructure improvements, including enhancing the electrical system that supplies power to the trains, and rebuilding the North River Tunnel, which was heavily damaged by seawater during Superstorm Sandy.

The establishment of the Commission is a necessary step to make the project eligible to apply for and be awarded financial assistance, loans, other local or state funding, and especially the federal infrastructure grants necessary to fund a project on the scale of the Gateway Program.

The bill:

• Establishes the Commission as an applicant eligible to apply for and be awarded financial assistance, loans, grants or other funding.
• Establishes a board of seven commissioners with three appointments each from New York and New Jersey and one from Amtrak.
• Requires the commission to establish bylaws, a code of conduct and whistleblower protections.
• Requires open meetings, annual reporting and independent audits.
• Provides that any portion of projects located within New York shall be designated public work, provided such designation does not prevent compliance with federal law/requirements.
• Requires the commission to adopt procurement guidelines.
• Provides that the appointment of the New York commissioners shall be appointed by the commissioner of the New York Department of Transportation.
• Provides that the commission shall dissolve upon a joint determination by the Governors of each state that the project has been completed or should be transferred.

“Our legislation is a model of reform that requires full transparency and accountability, including financial disclosure, public hearings, open public meetings and open public records,” said Senator Weinberg.

“Getting Gateway right starts with demonstrating that New York and New Jersey can work together productively, responsibly, transparently, and with clear accountability,” added Assemblymember Paulin. “The safeguards we’ve put into place, the requirement for open meetings, the whistleblower protections, and the rules for procurement and annual, independent audits should give our residents full confidence in our two great states’ ability to continue to work together to get the job done.”