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Feds accidentally publish secret plan to kill NYC congestion pricing
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 24, 2025
Modified Apr 24, 2025
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Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 24, 2025
Modified Apr 24, 2025
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Lawyers for the federal government briefly published internal correspondence on Wednesday evening detailing a laundry list of flaws in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s legal strategy to shut down the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls.
The document, dated April 11, was mistakenly posted on the docket of the MTA’s federal lawsuit challenging U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s effort to kill the tolls by revoking federal approval. The internal 11-page letter, sent from attorneys in the Southern District of New York to a lawyer for the federal transportation department, was taken down less than an hour after it was erroneously put online.
By Thursday afternoon, the attorneys were taken off the case while a transportation department spokesperson speculated they published the document as an act of sabotage.
It marked a new, bizarre wrinkle in the legal back-and-forth between New York state and the Trump administration over the future of the Manhattan tolls — and sparked yet another round of recrimination within President Donald Trump's justice department.
Three assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in the internal letter that Duffy’s current argument to shut down the tolls isn’t likely to hold up in court. The program was approved under former President Joe Biden through a U.S. DOT pilot program – the Value Pricing Pilot Program – that allows local governments to impose tolls on federally funded roads. Duffy has argued he has the authority to rescind that approval, but the government attorneys were skeptical.
“It is unlikely that Judge [Lewis] Liman or further courts of review will accept the argument that [congestion pricing] was not a statutorily authorized ‘value pricing’ pilot” by the federal government, the letter states. “We have been unable to identify a compelling legal argument to support this position."
The letter advises U.S. DOT officials to instead argue they’re revoking approval for the tolls through Office of Management and Budget regulations, which could allow for such a move “as a matter of changed agency priorities.” Still, the letter notes that argument isn’t airtight because the DOT did not give the MTA any money to launch congestion pricing.
The document was replaced on the docket with a letter to the judge updating him on the timeline for the case.
"Unfortunately, an attorney-client privileged document was erroneously filed on the public docket last night," SDNY spokesperson Nicholas Biase wrote in a statement. "This was a completely honest error and was not intentional in any way. Upon realizing the error, we immediately took steps to have the document removed. We look forward to continuing to vigorously advocate in the best interest of our clients, the DOT and FHWA, in this matter."
MTA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the filing suggests their bid to continue collecting the congestion pricing tolls is on solid ground.
The episode further strained the relationship between the Trump administration and the Southern District of New York, which had opposed the justice department's order to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams.
"Are SDNY lawyers on this case incompetent or was this their attempt to RESIST?" U.S. DOT spokesperson Halee Dobbins wrote in a statement. "At the very least, it’s legal malpractice. It’s sad to see a premier legal organization continue to fall into such disgrace."
Dobbins said the Southern District of New York would be taken off the case as a result of the mistake. Attorneys at the civil division at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. would handle the case moving forward, she said.
Duffy initially ordered the MTA to shut down the tolls in February, just over a month after the agency launched them. President Donald Trump had promised to eliminate the program last year during his campaign.
Duffy at first gave the agency a March 21 deadline to kill the program, then pushed it back to April 20. This week, the feds issued another deadline, saying the MTA has until May 21 to either nix the tolls or explain why they don’t violate federal law. Duffy threatened to withhold some highway funding for New York if the agency doesn't comply.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has vowed to leave the tolls on unless a federal judge orders otherwise. Congestion pricing was first authorized by state lawmakers in 2019, and is required to finance $15 billion worth of repairs to the MTA’s mass transit infrastructure.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
Tagged
new york city
manhattan
transportation
Politics
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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