Feds Insist Sunday Deadline to Halt Congestion Pricing Is Still in Effect
In a set of on-again, off-again gyrations that echo the chaos surrounding tariff policy in Washington, officials in the administration of President Donald Trump are insisting that their most recent deadline to end congestion pricing (this Sunday) is still in effect, even as federal and State officials argue in court over the fate of the program, which launched in January.
The brinksmanship began in February when the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) ordered New York State to halt congestion pricing no later than March 21. New York officials pledged to defy this order, and filed suit in federal court to prevent the federal government from enforcing it. The day before the original deadline was set to expire, DOT officials extended their deadline until April 20.
The most recent turn of events began when lawyers for New York State filed papers in the federal suit, citing an agreement between the two sides to continue submitting briefs in the case through at least July, and possibly into October. This seemed to indicate that the second cutoff date was now moot, and that New York could continue operating congestion pricing while the litigation was ongoing.
But a few days later, DOT representatives posted on social media, “this is a complete lie by the elitist New York liberal media, whose rich buddies love the idea of pricing poor people out of the city. The truth is simple agreements on judicial timelines have no bearing on the underlying merits of our case or our position.”
The post continued, “USDOT’s position remains that New York’s elitest [sic] cordon pricing scheme is illegal, a form of class warfare that targets working Americans, and unfair to the driving public whose tax dollars have already paid for these roads. USDOT’s deadline for stopping toll collection has not changed. Make no mistake – the Trump Administration and USDOT will not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal in response to non-compliance later this month.”
It concluded, “USDOT will continue to fight tooth and nail against this unlawful tax on hardworking Americans. Don’t buy the MTA’s spin, who are desperate to manufacture fake news to distract from the fact that their riders are getting assaulted regularly.”
Within hours, lawyers representing the State and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency that oversees the program (and is the intended recipient of funds raised by tolling vehicles $9 for passing south of 60th Street), filed a new brief with federal District Court judge Lewis J. Liman, “to notify the Court of a statement posted earlier today by Defendant United States Department of Transportation (‘USDOT’) that bears on the potential need for expedited injunctive relief.”
The brief continued, “while the Federal Defendants have not yet made us aware of what ‘tools’ they plan to use in order to enforce their April 20 deadline, we note that in other instances, the new Administration has resorted to withholding federal funding to force compliance with contested policies.”
The MTA’s legal team added that their client has “been clear from the beginning that they will ‘continue to operate the Program as required by New York law until and unless Plaintiffs are directed to stop by a court order.’ If the Federal Defendants plan to take unilateral action to alter the status quo, then they should be required to let us know what they intend to do and when they intend to do it, so that the parties and the Court can set an appropriate briefing schedule. In our view, in the event that an application for injunctive relief proves to be necessary, any failure by the Federal Defendants to provide timely notice can and should be taken into account in assessing irreparable harm and the balance of equities.”
This appears to mean that, if federal officials take any steps to shut down congestion pricing on Sunday, the MTA’s lawyers will seek a court order compelling them to cease and desist. Whether such an order would be obeyed by the Trump administration (which has defied federal judges on several other recent matters) remains an open question.
The MTA has released updated metrics quantifying the impact of congestion pricing, showing less traffic, more subway ridership, and more than $100 million in tolls raised in the first two months of the year. The MTA’s statistics indicate that an average of 82,095 fewer vehicles entered the tolling zone each day in March, compared to historical baselines, translating into 2,544,945 fewer cars on Manhattan streets for the month as a whole.