Marc Molinaro, a former congressman and an outspoken critic of New York City’s new congestion pricing program, has been chosen by President Trump to lead the federal agency that supports the nation’s public transportation systems, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
The White House has yet to formally announce the nomination of Mr. Molinaro, a Republican from New York. But the Trump administration offered him the job in recent days, and Mr. Molinaro accepted, said the officials, both Republicans, who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The agency, the Federal Transit Administration, distributes billions of dollars each year in grants for buses, subways, light rail lines and ferries. New York City’s system is by far the largest recipient, and the position would afford Mr. Molinaro considerable sway at a crucial juncture for his home state.
He has spent years criticizing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York City’s transit system, as mismanaged and bloated. He has taken particular umbrage at the congestion pricing program implemented this year, which aims to alleviate traffic and generate funding for the system by tolling drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Mr. Trump shares the former congressman’s antipathy for the plan and has promised to try to kill it. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the White House has begun to discuss possible legal strategies to do so.
Mr. Molinaro wrote on X last week that there was a “clear path” to undoing it, though he did not specify how. Like other Republicans, he has called congestion pricing a money grab by a transit agency with a history of financial problems.
“The M.T.A. is in desperate need of reform, transparency & accountability,” Mr. Molinaro wrote in response to a letter from fellow New Yorkers asking Mr. Trump to end congestion pricing. “Hardworking NYers & New Jerseyans aren’t an ATM for this bloated bureaucracy.”
A spokesman for Mr. Molinaro referred all requests for comment to the Transportation Department, which houses the transit agency. The department did not reply to inquiries; nor did the White House. Gothamist first reported Mr. Molinaro’s pending nomination.
The position would require confirmation by the Senate.
Mr. Molinaro, 49, has traditionally been more moderate than much of his party. He has served in government office more or less continually since he was 18. That has included stints as the mayor of the village of Tivoli; as a state legislator; county executive; candidate for governor; and a single term in Congress representing the Hudson Valley and the Catskills.
He barely missed out on a second term in November, losing to Representative Josh Riley, a Democrat. But he made clear not long after that he would be willing to serve in the Trump administration, and powerful New York Republicans helped lobby for him to lead a transportation-related agency.
Legal and transportation experts have said that the president could try to revoke federal approval or threaten to withhold federal funding from New York if it does not stop the tolling program. They added that he would not have unilateral power to undo the program, and his administration would probably have to try to block it in court.
The program started on Jan. 5 after clearing its final bureaucratic hurdle when the Federal Highway Administration granted New York the approval it needed to toll drivers.
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