U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked members of Congress in a letter on Wednesday to give Amtrak the green light to rename Penn Station, setting up the possibility the nation’s busiest train hub could be rechristened after President Donald Trump.
The federal government has led the effort to rebuild the dilapidated station since last year, when Trump stripped control of the project from the MTA and turned it over to Amtrak. White House officials have since floated the idea of renaming Penn Station, which is owned by federally run Amtrak, after Trump.
Duffy’s request came in a letter to Senate committee chairs as Congress negotiates new spending bills.
While Duffy didn’t explicitly ask lawmakers to put Trump’s name on Penn Station in his letter, he asked them to “direct Amtrak to rename New York Penn Station.”
As a real estate developer, Trump earned a reputation for renaming buildings his company purchased after himself. Since returning to the White House last year, he tried to add his name to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., though a federal judge earlier this year ruled that he lacked the authority to do so.
Duffy’s letter also includes a list of asks to help fund the Penn Station project. Amtrak announced a “master developer” and design for the project last month, and federal officials have said the work will cost around $8 billion. Duffy asked lawmakers to authorize $1 billion to begin major work on the redesign effort from a “Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.”
The letter also asked the senators to approve a Republican-backed amendment from a federal defense funding bill that would allow property tax around Penn Station to help finance the project. Duffy is also asking Congress to increase the financing cap from a railroad loan program from $35 billion to $50 billion.
Officials behind the project have said they’d like to maximize the amount of federal grants and loans they receive from Washington before seeking funding locally from New Jersey, and potentially, New York.
The letter was first reported by the Daily News.
Renderings of the new design for the station selected by Amtrak included a wall etched with a presidential seal bearing Trump's name.
"After months of hiding from the public, Sean Duffy has confirmed that the Trump administration is waging a hostile takeover of Penn Station, including delivering Trump his dream of renaming Penn Station after himself," U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose district includes Penn Station, wrote in a statement. " This will be one of the most expensive projects in the country, yet the administration still has not disclosed how it will be funded or who will pay the bill. New York taxpayers and transit riders must not be forced to foot the bill for a Trump vanity project."
