Deadline for NY to end congestion pricing moved back again by Trump transportation secretary Sean Duffy
Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued another round of funding threats against New York state Monday — while once again rollling back a supposed deadline for the end of congestion pricing.
In a letter to Gov. Hochul Monday, Duffy set his third in a row of seemingly toothless deadlines, telling the state to end the congestion toll by May 21.
'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 said. 'We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal.'
If the toll persists beyond May 21, Duffy said, his department will not authorize federal funds for any highway project in Manhattan, will refuse to approve Manhattan projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, and will refuse to greenlight any funding amendments from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council — unless any of those projects involve safety.
Should New York's 'noncompliance' continue, he threatened, they'll defund projects citywide.
The threats come as the latest swipe in a showdown about federal authority over the state law — specifically New York's congestion pricing law, which Duffy continues to assert he can end.
Duffy first claimed to be able to revoke an already-granted federal authorization in February, weeks after New York began tolling drivers who entered Midtown and lower Manhattan in an implementation of the state's 2019 Traffic Mobility Act, which required the toll as a means of funding a specific list of MTA transit projects.
The MTA promptly sued, calling the revocation unconstitutional. Hochul agreed, likened Trump to a king, and said the toll would remain in effect absent a court order.
In response, Duffy set a March 21 deadline for ending the toll. The transportation secretary then extended the deadline to April 20, before extending it again on Monday to May 21.
Meanwhile, the MTA's suit over the constitutionality of Duffy's order continues to work its way through Manhattan federal court, where lawyers for the feds said earlier this month they are 'still evaluating what DOT's options are' should New York keep the toll in place.
Duffy has called the toll — which charges most drivers $9 once a day to enter the congestion zone — 'class warfare.'
While he acknowledged in his letter to Hochul that federal law allows tolls 'to be used for transit projects,' he added 'it is unconscionable as a matter of policy that highway users are being forced to bail out the MTA transit system.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump admin threatens to halt funding for California's ‘boondoggle' high-speed rail project
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday threatened to halt all funding to California's high-speed rail project, calling it a 'boondoggle' with no viable path forward. In a 310-page report and a letter to Ian Choudri, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Duffy alleged 'a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste and skyrocketing costs' that have already cost taxpayers approximately $6.9 billion and failed to lay any track. 'I promised the American people we would be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,' Duffy said. 'CHSRA is on notice — if they can't deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump's vision of building great, big, beautiful things again.' Duffy gave Choudri 37 days to respond to the report, after which $4 billion in grants could be terminated, he said. Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 to cover one-third of the estimated cost of building the rail line, which would connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, with the aim of having trains up and running by 2020. The current construction involves only a 171-mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield in California's Central Valley, which the authority hopes to begin testing in 2028. In 2023, then-President Joe Biden awarded a $3 billion grant to help officials complete the first phase of the project. That grant came after he reinstated a $1 billion grant to the High-Speed Rail Authority that the first Trump administration had previously blocked. The California High-Speed Rail Authority did not immediately respond to KTLA's request for comment. Opinion: Trump is right, California's high-speed rail project is a mess Choudri, who was appointed CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority in August, is tasked with reinvigorating the nation's largest infrastructure project amid skyrocketing costs. 'We started this one, and we are not succeeding,' Choudri said, describing what drew him to the job after work on high-speed systems in Europe. 'That was the main reason for me to say, let's go in, completely turn it around, and put it back to where it should have been. Fix all the issues, get the funding stabilized, and demonstrate to the rest of the world that when we decide that we want to do it, we actually will do it.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Rails Against Men in Spandex
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, still grappling with a series of air traffic control outages that have disrupted U.S. airspace in recent weeks, took a detour Tuesday—into fashion policing. 'I don't think men in spandex look good at all, I'm sorry to the guys that bike' Duffy said on the conservative Ruthless podcast, wading into MAGA's favorite fixation: masculinity. 'Women in spandex—beautiful,' added the married father of nine, drawing raucous laughter from the show's all-male hosts. 'Men, not so much, right?' Duffy, a former Fox Business TV host, is the latest MAGA figure to lay down edicts on 'manliness.' In March, Fox News host Jesse Watters unveiled his five ' rules for men '—among them: no crossing your legs, no soup in public, and no straws (pursing your lips is apparently too 'effeminate'). Vice President J.D. Vance has also tried to join the conversation, lamenting in February that 'our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge.' 'My message to young men is don't allow this broken culture to send you a message that you're a bad person because you're a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you're competitive,' he said. When stocks plunged in April after President Donald Trump rolled out his 'Liberation Day' tariffs, The Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon argued that his trade war would ultimately alleviate America's 'crisis in masculinity' by reviving jobs that depend on 'brawn and physicality.' Duffy aired his spandex critique while talking with the Ruthless podcast hosts about his predecessor at the department, Pete Buttigieg—who famously rode his bike to work and whom Duffy has repeatedly tried to pin recent air traffic control meltdowns on. The Trump administration has proposed a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the country's troubled air traffic control system, calling for six new control centers and tech upgrades at all air traffic facilities nationwide. Duffy is also scrambling to address a nationwide staffing crisis at the Federal Aviation Agency, but progress has been hampered by Elon Musk the Trump administration's own deferred-resignation program, which has resulted in more than 1,200 employees exiting the agency.
E&E News
7 hours ago
- E&E News
White House directs DOT to ignore GAO ruling on EV funding pause
The White House's Office of Management and Budget told the Transportation Department on Tuesday to disregard a ruling by the Government Accountability Office that the Trump administration violated the law by freezing electric vehicle funding. Mark Paoletta, OMB's general counsel, in a letter to DOT called the congressional watchdog's ruling 'wrong and legally indefensible.' The letter responds to the GAO's report that found DOT broke the law by withholding money already approved by Congress for the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which was funded by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. Advertisement Paoletta contends DOT's recording of obligations for the NEVI program complied with the statutory language that created the program and was aligned with DOT past practices regarding other highway formula programs. He also argues DOT didn't violate the Impoundment Control Act by rescinding the Biden administration's NEVI program guidance and 'temporarily pausing new obligations until new guidance could be issued.'
