The Trump administration threatened to pull funding and approvals for New York transportation projects over congestion pricing on Monday, demanding in a letter to the state that officials halt the tolling program or risk consequences for city projects, and then eventually for projects across the state.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says Gov. Kathy Hochul has until May 21 to explain why his agency should not follow through on its threats, in the wake of Hochul ignoring an April 20 deadline to shut down congestion pricing.
He said the federal government could start withholding new project funds and approvals to city projects beginning May 28, and warned the “corrective measures” could be expanded statewide if “noncompliance continues.”
“The federal government sends billions to New York — but we won’t foot the bill if Governor Hochul continues to implement an illegal toll to backfill the budget of New York’s failing transit system,” Duffy wrote in the letter. “We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal.”
The ramped up threats follow Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority twice defying the Trump’s administration’s demands to end the toll on most motorists entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
Hochul and MTA board chair and CEO Janno Lieber have repeatedly said that they will not shut down the tolling program, which was approved by the Biden administration in 2024, unless directed by a federal judge.
The increasingly hostile rhetoric comes after the Trump administration agreed to a legal timeline that’s expected to keep congestion pricing live at least into October, court records show. Both sides of the congestion pricing fight agreed to a briefing schedule that will not resolve the lawsuit the MTA has filed against the Trump administration’s efforts to kill the toll until the fall, therefore keeping the toll up and running until whatever a decision is made.
The governor’s office and the MTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
