Right on time, here's the other shoe.
Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened — via a letter rife with falsehoods about the MTA — to withhold federal funds for unspecified highway projects in Manhattan, and eventually the entire state of New York, if Gov. Hochul does not turn off the congestion pricing cameras by May 21.
Duffy's letter was sent on Monday, the day after the MTA ignored the secretary's second fake deadline to end the federally approved tolling system. In the letter, Duffy set the third deadline for New York State to end congestion pricing — or this time, his U.S. DOT won't approve any construction projects or projects that require environmental review, as well as hold up some funding requested by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (more on that group later).
Duffy also threatened to extend the hold-up beyond Manhattan to stop projects in New York City or even all of New York State.
The latest letter from Duffy comes after the Transportation Secretary has tried twice to end congestion pricing by fiat. First in February, and then in March, Duffy sent letters to Gov. Hochul informing her that he unilaterally decided to cancel the federal agreement that allowed congestion pricing to happen in the first place. In response to each letter, Hochul has insisted that congestion pricing was going to continue.
It's worth noting that the current war over congestion pricing has collateral damage: The MTA is waiting for approval for billions of dollars in federal support for its next capital renovation plan.
This most recent letter is the first one that includes any actual threat of consequences for refusing to comply with the order, which Hochul and the MTA both have said is not a real legal order — which is why the MTA sued Duffy in federal court over his attempt to cancel the Federal Highway Administration's prior approval for congestion pricing.
Hochul and MTA leadership has said that they will keep congestion pricing going until a court orders them to stop, which is unlikely, legal experts say.
Duffy's threats may not have much immediate impact, as transportation experts noted that New York mega-projects that require federal environmental review were probably going to get jerked around in the same way that the essential Gateway project couldn't get federal approval during President Trump's first term.
"Stuff requiring Federal Transit Administration agreement — like the Second Avenue subway expansion and Interborough Express — were always going to be in for rough sledding during the Trump administration," said Jon Orcutt, a former city transportation official under Mayors Mike Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio.
But the threat to gum up the works at New York Metropolitan Transportation Council could actually stop federal dollars from flowing to projects around the region. The Council is responsible for putting together Transportation Improvement Plans, which are documents that unlock federal funding for the whole region. Each TIP is regularly amended to change the timeline for which projects get federal money. If Duffy were to follow through on his threat to stop rubber-stamping TIP amendments, it would wreck the way federal money goes to transportation projects in New York.
"The TIP is very forward-looking, it's a placeholder for federal money ahead of time. As you get closer to a project like timeline may change, the needs for other funding may change, people find other things that cost money. And so it's often amended as you go to keep up, to keep up with reality. If you can't do that, it does have an effect," said Orcutt, who was the city's representative on NYMTC in 2012 and 2013.
Targeting an otherwise sleepy planning body has implications even outside of New York. NYMTC is what's known as a Metropolitan Planning Organization, a type of federally mandated planning group that exists all over the country. If Duffy is allowed to make a political target out of the MPO in New York, there's no reason he couldn't do it in other states or cities.
"I would dare say that New York shouldn't be the only ones that should be concerned about this," said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA and a former executive director of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. "This is a national crisis, because there are hundreds of MPOs, and they all operate the same way. So for example, if you see 'DEI' in any contract anywhere nationally, and [U.S. DOT] says, we're going to hold up your TIP until you change this, that's a national crisis for road projects, highway projects, transit projects. Every single federal funding source that goes to an MPO is at risk if this is permitted to happen."
Daglian said that processing TIP amendments is generally done pro forma, since it's little more than a request to move money around. For instance, NYMTC currently has a list of amendments to the current TIP that includes projects all around downstate New York, including installing elevators at subway stops, paving streets in Suffolk and building a bikeway in Suffolk County. Per Duffy's threats, future amendment requests will be denied.
The MTA suggested something like this might be in the offing earlier this month. In the beginning of April, a lawyer for the authority told the judge overseeing the MTA's lawsuit over Duffy's illegal order that lawyers for the federal government wouldn't say whether Duffy was planning on retaliating against New York if the MTA didn't turn off congestion pricing.
At that time, the MTA said it may have to take further legal action if Duffy tried anything else to force New York's compliance, and agency leadership said they were considering adding to their lawsuit in response to the blackmail threats in the newest letter.
"We have received Secretary Duffy’s letter setting yet another new deadline and are evaluating MTA’s legal options, given that the legal issues raised in the letter are already appropriately before a federal judge," said MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber. "In the meantime, cameras are staying on, and New Yorkers continue to benefit from the first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program – with less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets and a stronger regional economy."
Gov. Hochul also said that she was unmoved by the threats.
"I repeat: congestion pricing is legal — and it’s working," Hochul said in a statement. "Traffic is down, business is up and the cameras are staying on."
In addition to the threats laid out in the letter, Duffy continued to insult New York's transit system. Duffy writes that congestion pricing "imposes a disproportionate financial hardship on low and medium-income hardworking American drivers," a passage that only someone who never looked at the 4,000-page environmental assessment could write (someone like Duffy, for example, who lied about congestion pricing being put in place without a study).
Ninety percent of commuters going to work in lower Manhattan took transit even before congestion pricing began, and outside of work trips, tourists generally do not drive to lower Manhattan, the MTA noted. "Furthermore, driving to and from the Manhattan CBD is already expensive given the very limited availability of free or low-cost parking and the cost of taxi/FHV fares, and it is likely that tourists who drive have higher incomes," the EA notes.
Duffy's letter and the press release announcing the letter take a number of potshots at the MTA that are typical of someone who might ride the subway for two stops every few years or so. In the letter itself, Duffy feigns horror at the idea that the lack of a free roadway into lower Manhattan means drivers either need to pay to bring a car into the area or ride our supposedly "substandard transit system." Contrary to what the letter suggests, on-time performance is above 95 percent for both commuter railroads and 85 percent of subway riders reach their stops within five minutes of their scheduled time.
In a press release for the letter, Duffy's press shop further added that the federal government now believes the region's transit system is "mismanaged and dirty" and "poorly run." Since Duffy took over the U.S. DOT on Jan. 29, the worst air disaster in America in two decades has taken place and Duffy has spent his time fighting with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency over air traffic controller hiring. In that same time period, average daily ridership is up 7.7 percent on subways, 13.19 percent on buses, 9.82 percent on the Long Island Rail Road and 6.98 percent on Metro-North compared to 2024.
