Blaming the “uncertainty” of federal funding under President Donald Trump’s administration, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is delaying a massive project to help stop invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes.
Pritzker said in a statement that the Trump White House “has shown it cannot be trusted to legally uphold its financial commitments” to Illinois, by withholding funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“I have a responsibility to protect Illinois taxpayers. If the federal government does not live up to its obligations, Illinois could unfairly suffer the burden of hundreds of millions of dollars of liability,” Pritzker said. “We cannot move forward until the Trump Administration provides more certainty and clarity on whether they will follow the law and deliver infrastructure funds we were promised.”
According to Pritzker’s office, the Trump administration has already withheld $117 million in federal grants to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which has forced the state to pause contracts and put nearly 70 infrastructure projects on hold.
The governor’s office said the state will move forward with funding once it receives an assurance from the federal government that federal funds are secure — and that the Trump administration isn’t going to try to tinker with their agreement.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Natalie Phelps Finnie on Monday wrote in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating that Illinois will be postponing a “property rights closing” on Tuesday, “based on the anticipated lack of federal funding for the Brandon Road Project.”
The $1.15 billion project in the Des Plaines River near Joliet is seen as a vital way to stop invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Without a barrier, the carp could decimate the $20 billion fishing and boating industries and upend the freshwater ecosystem. The species has already made it into the Illinois River from the Mississippi River.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned a Tuesday event in Joliet about the project — but Pritzker was expected to to skip it.
Phelps Finnie wrote in the letter that IDNR wants a “potential May 2025 closing to allow Illinois to receive written assurances of federal funding.”
“The Trump Administration’s lack of clarity and commitment to delivering funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources leaves the state to anticipate a lack of federal funding for the Brandon Road Project,” she wrote. “…We stand ready to move forward if the administration provides the certainty to fund this critical project.”
Deputy Gov. Andy Manar told the Sun-Times the decision to delay the project came within the last week, as Pritzker’s administration watched Trump administration memos flood federal agencies across the country.
“The state could put in tens of millions of dollars into this project and tens of millions of dollars more, and we can wake up one day and the Trump administration can literally say, you know what, we’re not going to protect the Great Lakes any longer, or DOGE, the fake department, could say that’s wasteful.” Manar said. “We could totally see that happening. That’s not out of the bounds here. That’s what gives us pause and why the governor feels like we need, and the taxpayers of the state need, added protections.”
About $274 million in federal funding was allocated to the project — and Illinois and Michigan have both committed a combined $114 million. A partnership agreement was signed last year with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with construction.
“We wake up every day in state government and brace for whatever Truth Social says or Elon Musk tweets. And those actions have a real impact in communities. And this one just happens to be massive,” Manar said.
Will County waterways help to move more than $4 billion in goods annually, according to Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, who also expressed concern about any delay to the project.
“Our local economy, especially agriculture, rely on easy and affordable access to this transportation corridor,’ Bertino-Tarrant told the Sun-Times in a statement. “Any federal delays in this project threaten the economic livelihood of the entire Great Lakes region.”