New Congressional caucus takes aim at MTA’s congestion pricing plan

Four Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have formed a new caucus dedicated to pushing back against Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) planned Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP), also known as congestion pricing.

The Congressional Anti-Congestion Tax Caucus, led by U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5) and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY-11), will focus on the environmental, economic and oversight aspects of the plan. They are also joined in the caucus by U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) and Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ-7).

The CBDTP would create the nation’s first congestion pricing toll zone and would cover an area from 60th Street in Midtown to Battery Park. A toll would be levied from vehicles that entered or stayed in New York City’s Central Business District with net revenues funding improvements on New York City Transit buses and trains (80 percent of funds), Metro-North Railroad (10 percent of funds) and Long Island Rail Road (10 percent of funds).

In August 2022, the Federal Highway Administration released the environmental assessment of the CBDTP where congestion pricing was determined to support New York State’s MTA Reform and Traffic Mobility Act goals to reduce traffic congestion in the Central Business District and raise funds that would be invested in transit.

“Studies have shown that congestion pricing would shift vehicle traffic from higher-income, more urbanized areas to lower-income, more vulnerable communities, and in our case, from Manhattan’s city center to the outer boroughs,” said U.S. Rep Malliotakis. “The fact the MTA and the Federal Highway Administration are jamming through a flawed Environmental Assessment that failed to include Staten Island in its street-level analysis not only makes our government vulnerable to a lawsuit, but further shows how politicized the program’s implementation has become. We’re announcing this caucus today to show officials from the city, state and federal level that if they irresponsibly proceed with this scheme, there’s a unified, bipartisan effort in Congress working to stop it.”

The environmental assessment determined 85 percent of trips to the Central Business District are made by transit, and the assessment recognized that mitigation efforts would be needed in certain instances, such as for low-income drivers who do not have alternative means of transport.

In addition to the environmental and economic impacts of the congestion pricing plan, Reps. Gottheimer and Malliotakis introduced legislation that would require the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct a full audit of how MTA utilized federal assistance during the past five years.

“The new bipartisan Congressional Anti-Congestion Tax Caucus will stand up for hard-working New Jersey and New York drivers who will soon face the MTA’s $23-dollar-a-day cash grabbing Congestion Tax,” said U.S. Rep. Gottheimer. “It’s time MTA leadership came before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and gave Congress a full accounting, under oath, of the billions of federal dollars they received during COVID — not to mention the billions more they get every year. We can’t keep pouring dollars into an MTA black hole. There needs to be appropriate federal oversight and increased accountability for the MTA and their questionable uses of the billions in federal funds they’ve received. As that old Wendy’s ad said, ‘Where’s the beef?’ Where did all that money go?”

Riders Alliance, a group that advocates for improved transit in the region, called the caucus “a slap in the face to millions of hardworking New Yorkers and New Jerseyans.”

“Congestion pricing is the largest source of funds for the MTA capital program, and the only one to address the $20 billion wasted annually by families and firms due to traffic congestion,” said Riders Alliance Policy and Communications Director Danny Pearlstein. “Without congestion pricing, the representatives' constituents will be stuck on gridlocked buses, delayed by unreliable subways and shut out of inaccessible stations for decades to come. Rather than pursue better infrastructure, these supposed public servants today pander to a handful of their constituents and foment a harmful transportation culture war for private gain."

MTA explained reducing congestion is a common good for the community. 

“Yesterday it was reported that New York City has the most traffic congestion of any city across the United States, and incredibly today, we have members of Congress driving into midtown Manhattan trying to make sure those traffic problems remain," said MTA Chief, External Relations John J. McCarthy. "The bottom line is reducing car and truck traffic is good for the environment, good for getting fire trucks, buses and delivery vehicles through the city and good for the 90 percent of people who depend on mass transit.”