Editor’s note: This story was published first in the New Jersey Monitor.
The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s denial of its challenge to New York City congestion pricing, reviving its attempt to block a Manhattan traffic-reduction effort.
New York sued the administration over the initiative’s fate last year after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy moved to end the program, arguing that state officials had exceeded their authority and were barred from tolling all Manhattan crossings south of 60th Street.
“Once again, working-class Americans are being sidelined under Democrats’ policies, which impose a massive tax on every New Yorker,” the department said in an unsigned statement. “These Green New Scam policies have made federally funded roads inaccessible to commuters without providing a toll-free alternative. The Trump Administration will not stop fighting to make everyday life more affordable for American families.”
New York’s congestion pricing charges $9 tolls for entries into New York’s central business district in a bid to reduce traffic and deliver $15 billion to the Metropolitan Transportation Association’s capital budget.
A Regional Plan Association study in June found congestion pricing had cut traffic within the tolling district and outlying regions. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in January said the program netted more than $550 million in revenue in its first year, on track to hit the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s targets.
“Congestion pricing is working — fewer cars, less pollution, faster commutes. Secretary Duffy has already lost in court, and if he wants to see us there again, let’s go,” said MTA policy and external relations chief John McCarthy.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman in March ruled Duffy and the department had acted arbitrarily and capriciously in moving to end congestion pricing unilaterally. He ruled the administration could not end the value pricing pilot program agreement that permitted New York to enact congestion pricing except under the terms of that agreement. Duffy’s attempt to void that deal was unlawful, the court said.
The Trump administration filed its appeal on Friday to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
New Jersey has also sued to stop congestion pricing, arguing in briefs filed under former Gov. Phil Murphy that some federal approvals granted to the program were improper. Earlier versions of the suit, first filed in 2023, argued that New Jersey would face increased traffic and pollution as a result of the program.
New Jersey appears to be looking for a more amicable resolution to the state suit under Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
Attorneys for New York and New Jersey held a settlement conference on April 24, and a federal judge last week agreed to pause the action until June 10 so the two sides could continue negotiations, with the first update on talks due May 13.
Spokespeople for Sherrill declined to comment on the federal government’s appeal or the status of the state suit.
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