The Trump administration urged a federal judge to refrain from blocking the government from taking any action against New York’s congestion pricing program.

In a filing late on May 15, the U.S. Department of Transportation told U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman there’s no need for a preliminary injunction, saying the administration hasn’t decided on what measures it will take against the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s “scattershot claims.” 

The MTA on May 6 asked Liman to issue the injunction stopping the Transportation Department from withholding federal approvals or funds in President Donald Trump’s push to end congestion pricing. The state agency said it had reached an impasse with the federal government over the $9 toll that most drivers have paid since January 5 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on February 19 said he was reversing U.S. approval that the plan had won under former President Joe Biden. The MTA sued the same day, saying it wouldn’t stop the tolling without a court order. 

But on April 21, Duffy said the federal government would begin taking measures on May 28 if the tolls weren’t stopped by May 21, and the MTA then sought an injunction that would prevent the USDOT from taking any such actions while the lawsuit proceeds.

The administration has “the authority to terminate the agreement based on changed agency priorities,” Duffy said in the May 15 filing. “And to the extent the court finds that the April 21 letter constitutes a final termination, the secretary terminated the agreement reasonably.”