President Trump’s Attack on Congestion Pricing is an Attack on New York City

Despite a rocky start,[1] New York City’s Central Business District Tolling Program, more commonly known as the city’s congestion pricing plan, has seen demonstrable success in its implementation.[2]  The plan aims to ease traffic in some of Manhattan’s busiest streets by charging motorists nine dollars for entry to the Congestion Relief Zone[3] during peak hours, with the revenue supporting the struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority[4] (“MTA”) and funding the public transportation that keeps the city running.[5]

New York City’s robust public transport is unique within the United States, comprising of “the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuted rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined.”[6]  This program is born out of necessity—the clamor of Manhattan simply cannot support car usage by all New Yorkers.[7]  If all of Manhattan’s nearly three million workers drove to work, they would require a whopping 780 million square feet of parking space, 22% larger than the entire surface area of Manhattan.[8]

While critics claimed the congestion pricing plan would turn Manhattan into a dead zone,[9] the plan has thus far shown signs of success in improving pedestrian commutes and reducing vehicle traffic.[10]  Manhattan’s pedestrian traffic has increased throughout the borough[11] while vehicle traffic has been reduced by 7.5%.[12]  But as the first plan of its kind in the United States,[13] congestion pricing has drawn powerful opposition.[14]

President Trump has repeatedly declared his opposition to the program both before and following his reelection,[15] and on February 19, 2025, he sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul purporting to cancel the program.[16]  Trump declared on Truth Social that the program was “DEAD,” along with the phrase “LONG LIVE THE KING” with an accompanying image of the President wearing a crown.[17]  However, Trump’s legal basis for cancelling the congestion pricing program seems rather thin.  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claims that the federal Value Pricing Pilot Program (“VPPP”), which has partially funded the congestion pricing rollout, does not authorize “inescapable” tolls like those in New York City,[18] though no such limitations appear within the statute.[19]  Additionally, no other VPPP project has seen the federal government attempt to unilaterally rescind tolling authority; rather,  plans relying on the same statute have been authorized in Texas and Florida under the VPPP.[20]  

The MTA filed suit against the Transportation Secretary[21] and has been joined in intervention by environmental groups Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and Riders Alliance, who argue that the administration’s “unlawful” attempt to cancel the program is an “attempt to unilaterally deprive New Yorkers of the cleaner air and clearer streets that so many have worked toward.”[22]  

The defense of the congestion pricing plan has steep implications for New York’s role as a progressive policy leader in the United States.[23]  In its complaint against the Department of Transportation, the MTA cites Justice Brandeis: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”[24]  If the federal government is able to unilaterally snuff out disapproved policies with no legal basis, our system of federalism that affords states the right to regulate themselves may be functionally dead—and with it may die a host of progressive statutory protections that state and city law affords to New Yorkers.[25]  

As the MTA notes in its complaint,[26] this flagrantly unlawful action by the Trump Administration is another attempt to test the executive branch’s ability to ignore the law.  As the administration challenges the strength of court orders,[27] it could not be more vital that courts reaffirm the right of states to govern themselves and reject hollow displays of strength by the Trump Administration with no basis in law.  Accordingly, federal courts must hold that the Trump Administration lacks any authority to order the plan’s cessation; “as a mere signatory to a multi-party agreement,”[28] the administration’s unilateral action to cancel the plan is ultra vires, with recission of the VPPP agreement not being authorized under any statutory provision or the terms of the agreement.[29] An unprecedented attack on state governance, the fight over congestion pricing, in addition to its enormous consequences for millions of New Yorkers, is a test case for whether federalism can meaningfully survive the Trump administration.

[1] Governor Kathy Hochul initially canceled the program shortly before its planned implementation but later revived the program at a reduced toll.  See What They Are Saying: Governor Hochul Announces Pause on Congestion Pricing to Address the Rising Cost of Living in New York, Gᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴏʀ Kᴀᴛʜʏ Hᴏᴄʜᴜʟ (June 5, 2024), https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/what-they-are-saying-governor-hochul-announces-pause-congestion-pricing-address-rising-cost [https://perma.cc/HJ4B-F85J]; Corky Siemaszko, New York City Revives Congestion Pricing Plan to End Gridlock, NBC Nᴇᴡs (Nov. 14, 2024, 1:46 PM), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-york-city-revives-congestion-pricing-plan-end-gridlock-rcna180146 [https://perma.cc/XVX5-63V5].

[2] Erik Uebelacker, ‘It’s Night and Day’: Why Some NYC Commuters Say They’re Coming Around to Congestion Pricing, Cᴏᴜʀᴛʜᴏᴜsᴇ Nᴇᴡs Sᴇʀᴠ. (Mar. 14, 2025), https://www.courthousenews.com/its-night-and-day-why-some-nyc-commuters-say-theyre-coming-around-to-congestion-pricing/ [https://perma.cc/7TPY-ADDK]; Stefanos Chen & Winnie Hu, Congestion Pricing Reduced Traffic. Now It’s Hitting Revenue Goals, N.Y. Tɪᴍᴇs (Feb. 25, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/nyregion/nyc-congestion-pricing-revenue-mta.html [https://perma.cc/5K8L-YEH6].

[3] The Congestion Relief Zone reaches from the lower tip of Manhattan to 60th Street.  See Congestion Relief is Unlocking a Better New York, Mᴇᴛʀᴏ. Tʀᴀɴsᴘ. Aᴜᴛʜ., https://congestionreliefzone.mta.info/ [https://perma.cc/DZN8-YHZV] (last visited Mar. 17, 2025).

[4] See, e.g., Stephen Nessen & Ramsey Khalifeh, To Fund NYC Subway Fixes, MTA Must Undo Decades of Distrust, Gᴏᴛʜᴀᴍɪsᴛ (Feb. 6, 2025), https://gothamist.com/news/to-fund-nyc-subway-fixes-mta-must-undo-decades-of-distrust [https://perma.cc/RDM3-MW9Z].

[5] Robert Polner, Congestion Pricing Takes on Manhattan Gridlock, NYU Nᴇᴡs (Feb. 11, 2025), https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/january/manhattan-congestion-comes-to-an-intersection.html [https://perma.cc/4QH5-YLQR].

[6] Mᴇᴛʀᴏ. Tʀᴀɴsᴘ. Aᴜᴛʜ., 2024 Aɴɴᴜᴀʟ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ, https://www.mta.info/document/163951 [https://perma.cc/W7RP-EULV].

[7] Sebastian Hallum Clarke, Public Transit is Vital to New York’s Prosperity, Sɪᴅᴇᴡᴀʟᴋ Cʜᴏʀᴜs (Dec. 20, 2023), https://www.sidewalkchorus.com/p/transit-is-vital [https://perma.cc/WV5P-ZCJH].

[8] Id.

[9] Deirdre Bardolf, Congestion Pricing Might Drive Up Cost for NYC Beer Hounds: Another ‘Nail in the Coffin’, N.Y. Pᴏsᴛ (Jan. 12, 2025), https://nypost.com/2025/01/12/us-news/nyc-congestion-pricing-to-drive-up-the-cost-of-beer-another-nail-in-the-coffin/ [https://perma.cc/ZBM4-XTR4]; Steve Janoski, Companies Could Easily Flee NY for NJ over New Congestion Toll: Senator, N.Y. Pᴏsᴛ (Nov. 24, 2024), https://nypost.com/2024/11/24/us-news/companies-could-easily-flee-ny-for-nj-over-new-congestion-toll-senator/ [https://perma.cc/AT48-8KV5].

[10] Polner, supra note 5.

[11] Arun Venugopal, Vehicle Traffic is Down in Manhattan, But Pedestrian Traffic is Up, Data Says, Gᴏᴛʜᴀᴍɪsᴛ (Feb. 13, 2025), https://gothamist.com/news/vehicle-traffic-is-down-in-manhattan-but-pedestrian-traffic-is-up-data-says [https://perma.cc/U46R-69G7].

[12] Polner, supra note 5.

[13] Siemaszko, supra note 1.

[14] In addition to opposition from the President, discussed infra, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has sought to seize on the President’s grudge against New York and the congestion pricing plan, asking the President in a letter to make good on his promise to “TERMINATE” the plan only hours after Trump’s reelection.  David Matthau, Hours After Inauguration, N.J Gov. Phil Murphy Asks Trump to Review NYC Congestion Pricing ‘Disaster’, WHYY (Jan. 21, 2025), https://whyy.org/articles/new-jersey-phil-murphy-trump-congestion-pricing/ [https://perma.cc/G29Z-BB3N].

[15] Tracey Tully, Why Trump’s Push to Kill Congestion Pricing Might Fail, N.Y. Tɪᴍᴇs (Feb. 19, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/nyregion/trump-congestion-pricing.html [https://perma.cc/24H4-5CS9].

[16] Maya Yang, Trump Administration Rescinds Congestion Pricing for New York City, Tʜᴇ Gᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ (Feb. 19, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/19/trump-nyc-congestion-pricing [https://perma.cc/7U89-3FD9].

[17] Tully, supra note 15.

[18] Id.

[19] Pub. L. 102-240, § 1012(b), 105 Stat. 1914 (1991), as amended by Pub. L. 105-178, § 1216(a), 112 Stat. 107 (1998).

[20] Tully, supra note 15.

[21] Metro. Transp. Auth. v. Duffy, 1:25-cv-01413, (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 19, 2025).

[22] Chris Wade, Green Groups Sue over New York City Congestion Pricing Halt, Tʜᴇ Cᴛʀ. Sᴏ̨ᴜᴀʀᴇ (Mar. 6, 2025), https://www.thecentersquare.com/new_york/article_098fbd0a-fa86-11ef-866c-8fe06e262bbd.html [https://perma.cc/C3YF-SP7V].

[23] New York City offers, for instance, some of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination protections in the United States, expanding on the already comprehensive New York State Human Rights Law.  Mark S. Goldstein & Alexandra Manfredi, New York State and City Expand Human Rights Law Protections to Freelancers and Independent Contractors, Eᴍᴘ. L. Wᴀᴛᴄʜ (Jan. 24, 2020), https://www.employmentlawwatch.com/2020/01/articles/employment-us/new-york-state-and-city-expand-human-rights-law-protections-to-freelancers-and-independent-contractors/ [https://perma.cc/QY5E-VF43].

[24] Complaint at 10, Metro. Transp. Auth. v. Duffy, 1:25-cv-01413, (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 19, 2025).

[25] See Goldstein & Manfredi, supra note 23.

[26] Complaint at 9.

[27] Stephen Collinson, White House Denies Ignoring Court Order Halting Venezuelan Deportations, CNN (Mar. 17, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/politics/trump-judge-court-order-venezuelan-deportations/index.html [https://perma.cc/XV3G-ECSZ]; Robert Tait, Outrage after JD Vance Claims Judges are Not Allowed to Check Executive Power, Tʜᴇ Gᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ (Feb. 10, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/jd-vance-judges-trump [https://perma.cc/FX89-HY8N].

[28] Complaint at 11.

[29] Complaint at 41.