Lohud
By Mike Lawler

Let’s be clear: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing plan isn’t about protecting the environment or easing traffic, it’s about forcing another tax on working- and middle-class New Yorkers to bail out the bloated and corrupt Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It’s one more burden imposed by a state government that has lost touch with the people it’s supposed to serve, hurting families, workers and our state’s economy.

Hochul’s plan will penalize people for the “sin” of needing to commute to Manhattan to earn a living — including small-business owners, police officers, firefighters, teachers and other essential workers who serve New York City and our state every single day. Hochul’s plan charges these folks up to $2,500 per year just to get to work — and then she has the gall to tell them she’s doing them a favor by not making it $5,000 a year. Thanks a lot, Kathy!

Congestion pricing is a symptom of a deeper problem in our state: government overreach and mismanagement. The MTA is one of the worst-run agencies in America. It’s facing a staggering $3 billion budget deficit in the coming years, due in large part to fare evasion, which drains over $700 million a year from the system. And it already has racked up over $45.5 billion in debt on its books — a number larger than the budgets of 38 states.

However, rather than addressing these issues, trying to slash debt and driving down internal costs, the MTA and Hochul are looking to squeeze more money out of New Yorkers to cover their own failures.

The MTA’s budget woes didn’t come out of the blue. The waste, fraud, abuse and unchecked spending at the MTA are legendary. Janno Lieber and the authority’s leadership operate under the assumption that Hochul and Albany Democrats will bail them out, regardless of how irresponsibly they manage their finances. We need real accountability for the MTA, including a full audit of its books, and an analysis of what must be done to tackle its uncontrollable spending habits.

Meanwhile, violent crime on the subway has surged, with murders in our subway system jumping more than 60%. New Yorkers are, understandably, increasingly hesitant to use public transportation due to these crimes, a direct result of our state’s disastrous cashless bail law that frees repeat offenders, allowing them to commit offenses again and again. Hochul has failed to address these serious safety issues. Rather than making public transit safer, she has chosen to fast-track a tax that will push people away from going into the city altogether.

The entire process behind congestion pricing has been flawed from the start. It has been made possible only by manipulating federal programs, such as the Value Pricing Pilot Program, which Congress approved more than 30 years ago. The Biden administration further enabled this scheme by shortcutting the environmental review process and fast-tracking Hochul’s significant changes to her proposal that she announced immediately after the election.

As we look to the future, I hope that President-elect Donald Trump will work with me, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-Staten Island, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff, and other opponents of congestion pricing to end this flawed policy once and for all. We need solutions that improve MTA services and don’t levy additional taxes on hardworking middle-class families. New Yorkers deserve accountability from the MTA, not another unnecessary tax to make calling New York home even more brutally expensive. Hochul’s congestion pricing plan won’t solve our transportation challenges. Instead, it punishes those who have no choice but to drive to work due to safety concerns or lack of access to mass transit.

I won’t stop working with Republicans and Democrats to put an end to this misguided policy, restore accountability to the MTA, and reduce the crushing tax burden on New Yorkers, which is driving away millions of residents from our state. You can count on that.

Washington Reporter
By Rep. Mike Lawler

Today marks the first anniversary of the worst mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal and unprovoked attack on Israel, murdering over a thousand innocent men, women, and children, sexually abusing many and taking hundreds hostage. 

Among those butchered and taken captive were dozens of Americans. We must stand with our close ally in its time of need and support them as they fight not only to rescue their citizens who were taken by Hamas, but ours as well.

I have met with family members of Americans and Israelis whose relatives were killed or taken hostage by Hamas — in New York, in Washington, and in Israel. I have traveled to Israel twice in my official capacity during my first term in office. 

The first was with a bipartisan delegation led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the second U.S. Speaker of the House in American history to address the Knesset in Jerusalem. My second trip to Israel was in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, when I joined Chairman Michael McCaul and several Republican and Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to meet with hostages’ family members and with Israeli officials. In April, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.) and I visited the New York City exhibit recreating the grounds of the Nova Music Festival on the morning of October 7, when Hamas terrorists parachuted into a concert for peace and senselessly murdered anyone they could.

The congressional district I represent — New York’s 17 District — has one of the largest Jewish populations in the country. Our relationship with Israel and our efforts to combat anti-Semitism in America are essential issues to my constituents. Since taking office, both of these issues have been top priorities of mine. 

My first bill to become law was the Special Envoy for the Abraham Accords Act, which I introduced with Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), a progressive Democrat from the Bronx. That legislation, incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024, provides a special presidential envoy to enforce and expand the Abraham Accords. 

The Abraham Accords were a significant breakthrough that resulted in the normalization of relations between Israel and four Middle Eastern countries — Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, and Sudan. They were the first instance of normalization between Israel and an Arab-majority nation since Israel and Jordan normalized relations in 1994. With relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel warming considerably in recent years, it is widely believed that the Kingdom will be the next nation to normalize relations with Israel. 

Rep. Torres and I have been very open about our hope that establishing a special presidential envoy for the Abraham Accords will help facilitate this. Such a move would also isolate Iran in the Middle East, and it is no wonder that Hamas — heavily backed by the rogue terror regime in Tehran — would choose such a moment as this to attack Israel in a clear attempt to scuttle a hard-fought peace. 

We cannot let Hamas succeed, and we must hold both them and their Iranian backers accountable. We cannot achieve peace in the Middle East without ending once and for all Iran’s ability to export terror and death across the region, and that means cracking down on the illicit oil trade bankrolling it. That’s why I joined Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) to introduce the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, and joined Rep.Moskowitz to introduce the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act. 

These two bills were incorporated into the foreign aid supplemental passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. Just a few days ago, Iran launched hundreds of missiles into Israel. No longer content to act through its proxies alone — Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — Iran has become even more brazen in its desire to follow through on its promise to wipe Israel off the map. Iran may have already succeeded in that mission if it had not been for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow missile defense systems. These systems are Israel’s literal lifeline, and for as long as I am in Congress, I will fight like hell to make sure their funding never dries up.

I will also continue standing up to the anti-Israel bias at the United Nations (UN) and in our international institutions. Earlier in the 118th Congress, Rep. Gottheimer and I introduced the IGO Anti-Boycott Act to protect U.S. companies from being coerced by inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) into supporting the anti-Israel Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

In the aftermath of October 7 and the singling out of Israel by the UN and the International Criminal Court (ICC), Rep. Moskowitz and I introduced the Stand With Israel Act. This bipartisan legislation will curtail U.S. funding to any UN agency that expels, downgrades, suspends, or otherwise restricts the participation of the State of Israel. 

The UN was created to help protect the democratic order that emerged when the Nazis and their allies were defeated in the Second World War. Unfortunately, many of today’s evildoers have found their way into this institution, threatening to upend the democratic order from within. 

The findings of a recent UN probe that nine employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “may have” been involved in the October 7 massacre, along with last week’s news that a top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was a UNRWA employee placed on administrative leave is further evidence of how broken these institutions have truly become.

While Israel continues to face threats from all sides, Jewish Americans are becoming increasingly worried about the enemy within — the dark underbelly of anti-Semitism that has reemerged not only in our international institutions but here in our own country. Jews make up only 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, yet FBI data released in October 2023 showed that they were the target of 55 percent of all religion-based hate crimes. A recent study commissioned by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) showed that 93 percent of American Jews found antisemitism to be a serious problem and that nearly two-thirds felt that the status of Jews in the U.S. was less secure than in the prior year. Weeks into the start of a new school year, the anti-Semitic hate that intensified on college campuses in the wake of October 7 has continued to fester. 

During the last school year, I made multiple visits to Columbia University and confronted Hamas-sympathizing protesters head-on. I publicly called on Columbia’s then-president, Minouche Shafik, to resign. Although she has since done so, as have several other prominent university presidents who failed to confront antisemitism on their campuses, a new campus administration doesn’t solve the underlying problem. 

Anti-discrimination laws must be given teeth in order to hold those who bully, harass, intimidate, or assault Jewish students accountable. That’s why I introduced the Antisemitism Awareness Act and have repeatedly called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring this bill up for a Senate vote since it passed the House by a broad, bipartisan vote of 320 to 91 on May 1st. 26 governors — more than half — recently sent Senator Schumer a letter echoing this call. These are governors from across the country who are seeing rising anti-Semitism directly impact their constituents. It must be dealt with and it must be rooted out as swiftly as possible.

The protection of our students, the safety of Jewish Americans, and the security of our closest ally, Israel, can never take a back seat to politics. As we commemorate the solemn anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack, we must reaffirm our commitment to stand with Israel in its ongoing fight against terrorism and with our own Jewish communities in their ongoing concern for safety. 

As we remember the lives lost one year ago today, let us also renew our resolve to fight back against terrorism in all its forms and to ensure that every remaining hostage is freed from the clutches of Hamas. The world must never forget the horrors of October 7. We must remain united in ensuring that such evil is never allowed to flourish again — whether in the streets of the Middle East, the halls of the UN, or our own communities.

Rep. Mike Lawler represents New York’s 17th District in Congress. 

Lohud
By Mike Lawler

This is everything that’s wrong with politics today.

Throughout this campaign, Mondaire Jones and his special interest allies have continually resorted to lies and distortions because he and they cannot defend Mondaire’s radical record. Jones knows that when voters see the truth — when they see the clear contrast between his far-left extremism and my commonsense, bipartisan approach — his arguments fall apart.

Let’s set the record straight, once and for all.

Here’s the truth:

I have NOT and will NEVER cut Social Security and Medicare. I’ve fought hard to protect these vital programs, which so many of our seniors rely on, and I will continue to fight to ensure they remain strong and sustainable for future generations.

I will NOT support a national abortion ban. As I have consistently said, I have always believed in exceptions for rape, incest, and the life and health of the mother. And I have been a strong advocate for access to IVF and contraception. These are difficult, personal issues, and I respect that. My stance has always been clear and consistent and I am in no way looking to change New York State law.

I am NOT working to overturn the Affordable Care Act or allow insurance companies to discriminate against those with preexisting conditions. In fact, I have always supported protecting those with preexisting conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, ensuring that they have access to the healthcare they need.

Sadly, Jones believes that if he repeats these lies enough times, the voters will believe them. He is counting on misinformation and fear to sway public opinion, rather than relying on the facts or his own legislative record, which is subpar, to say the least.

But what’s even more insulting than this litany of lies is the insinuation that I, like so many others, don’t understand the struggles facing working families.

This is how my perspective as a public servant has been shaped

Let me share two stories that have shaped my perspective as both a person and a public servant.

In 2013, I lost my Dad to cancer. He was just 54 years old. In the five years before his death, my parents faced a series of devastating blows. They lost their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, my Dad lost his job and battled depression, they were forced to sell their home and move in with my grandparents and my Dad fought two grueling battles — one against Multiple Sclerosis and another against cancer.

In those years, my Dad had to rely on Social Security disability, a lifeline for many families who’ve paid into the system for years. My family was fortunate that my Mom had health insurance through her job, but I’ve seen firsthand the toll it takes when you’re struggling to make ends meet, when the system you’ve supported your whole life becomes your only safety net.

After graduating college in 2009, I moved back home to help my parents. I lived through their challenges with them. I understand the burden that illness, unemployment and financial ruin can place on a family. I saw my Dad go through that, and it’s why I’ve spent my career fighting for families like mine, making sure that no one falls through the cracks.

In the last conversation I had with my Dad, just five days before he passed away, he told me something that has stayed with me every day since. He said, “Michael, to whom much is given, much is required. You’ve been given a lot of talents and skills. Use them to do God’s work and to always keep your moral compass.”

He said those words before suffering a series of seizures that put him into a coma. That was the last time I ever spoke with him, but his words have been my guiding light in everything I’ve done since — especially in my capacity as an elected official.

Secondly, in January 2020, after years of trying to start a family, my wife Doina and I got pregnant with our first child. At eight weeks, we went to Doina’s OBGYN for our first ultrasound. Not knowing fully what to expect, we watched the screen with excitement as the technician checked the baby’s measurements.

After about 10 minutes, she informed us that she needed to speak with the doctor. As Doina and I waited, we smiled and talked about finally becoming pregnant.

Soon after, the doctor came back with the technician and started to perform the ultrasound. A few minutes later she said, “So based on the size measurements, the baby is about 7 weeks and 4 days. At this point we should hear a heartbeat. Unfortunately, we do not. The baby is not viable.”

We were shocked, confused and heartbroken. In a moment we went from experiencing pure joy to excruciating pain.

As we left the doctor’s office and got into our car, we were both stunned into silence.

A few weeks later, my wife had to have a D&C procedure to ensure her health and well-being. It was a traumatic experience.

Everyone who has ever suffered a miscarriage or the loss of a child understands that pain. It’s a feeling you never forget or get over. You live with it for the rest of your life.

Over the next year and a half we struggled to get pregnant, taking steps to begin IUI and IVF treatments. Fortunately, just days before our first IUI treatment, we found out we were pregnant with our daughter, Julianna. Next month we are expecting our second daughter. It is the greatest blessing in our lives.

Unfortunately, for too long the discussion around these issues have been driven by the extremes in both parties, rather than the vast majority of Americans who want a reasonable and honest discussion on this issue.

So, shame on Jones for lying about my record and misrepresenting who I am. But more importantly, shame on him for not recognizing that we all have our own life experiences that shape our views, our values and our commitment to public service.

I’m in this fight because I’ve lived it. I know what it’s like for families to struggle, and I’ve dedicated myself to making sure that the government works for the people it serves. I’ve fought to bring $38 million in Community Project Funding back to the Hudson Valley, I’ve fought to secure millions in law enforcement resources, and I’ve fought to protect programs like Social Security and Medicare — programs that my family relied on during our darkest days.

I believe in bipartisanship, in working across the aisle to get things done. That’s why I’ve been named one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and that’s why I will continue to fight for commonsense policies that make a real difference for the people of the Hudson Valley.

No number of lies from Jones or dark money groups will change that.

Rep. Mike Lawler, running for reelection, represents New York’s 17th Congressional District.

Lohud
By Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro

For any parent, some of the happiest moments in life are the days their children are born. As fathers, we know firsthand just how beautiful the gift of life is for all families, and the joy of holding your child is immeasurable. As members of Congress, we have sought to do all we can to make life easier for families by working to tackle persistent inflation, lower tax burdens, maintain a strong social safety net and encourage people to start families. That’s why we were so troubled to see a recent decision by the Alabama State Supreme Court that could rob families of ever being able to experience the joy of parenthood.

The decision forced clinics around the state to indefinitely pause access to IVF services for thousands of women. Doctors reluctantly made the decision until they could receive further clarification on what legal liabilities they and their patients could face when going through the IVF process.

While we were heartened to see Alabama’s House and Senate swiftly respond by passing bills to protect doctors and clinics that perform IVF, it remains unnerving that a single, out-of-touch state court was able to unilaterally muscle through these broad restrictions.

The ruling is especially outlandish when you consider how out-of-step it is with the views of a super-majority of Americans. One CBS News poll found that 86% of Americans believe IVF should be legal. And across the country, in red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Ohio, voters are making it emphatically clear that they are opposed to more restrictions on women.

This watershed moment should be raising red flags for legislators at all levels of government and from both parties.

Unfortunately, it has not. This issue has been largely ignored, especially by members of our own party. We are done waiting. We believe, like most Americans believe, that women and families who choose IVF to bring life into this world should be protected.

That’s why we crossed party lines and became the first two Republicans to sign onto Democrat Rep. Susan Wild’s bill to federally protect IVF services.

This commonsense measure will statutorily protect IVF — precluding any court from forcing its views on IVF onto another woman or family. But supporting IVF protections is just the tip of the iceberg. We should also be doing more to support women and families. That’s why we championed the expansion of the Child Tax Credit in the recent bipartisan tax bill and are fighting to protect critical programs like WIC, which provides supplemental food, health care, and nutrition education for low-income women, infants and children.

We recognize and respect that each of us have different life experiences that shape our views on important issues and different circumstances that inform our decisions. But when it comes to IVF, we can’t let political affiliation get in the way of a commonsense policy that is so popular, and so personal for so many.

We hope that by raising our voices, sanity will prevail, and more Republicans will back our effort.

Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican, represents New York’s 17th District and Rep. Marc Molinaro, also a Republican, represents New York’s 19th District.

Opinion | The Hill
By Mike Lawler

In recent months, we’ve witnessed a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents on our college campuses — culminating in the horrific scenes playing out at “elite” universities this spring. This wave of hatred, camouflaged as political activism, has sown division and left many Jewish students feeling unsafe. 

Just a week ago, I joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) at Columbia University to hear directly from Jewish students and to meet with members of Columbia’s administration. 

What I heard shocked me. 

Jewish students said they couldn’t attend classes without facing verbal or physical assault and harassment. 

Administration officials begged off of lax enforcement of campus policies, claiming negotiating with students was more productive than having consequences. 

And this has all led to where we find ourselves today. 

Non-enforcement of university policy and a twisted priority placed on not upsetting radical elements of student bodies across the country has allowed this extreme, hateful minority of students to hijack college and university campuses across the country for their own means. 

From California to New York, Illinois to Massachusetts and Ohio to Washington, D.C., these impromptu encampments of hatred have sprouted up. 

And all the while, their occupants have joined in antisemitic chants calling for the extermination of the state of Israel, carrying signs that read “Final Solution” and “Al-Qassam’s Next Targets,” and have expressed support for terrorist groups. 

Will we, as a country, root out and clamp down on these hate mongers, or will we let our country become a breeding ground for antisemitism? 

I know where I stand on this issue. 

Last October, shortly after Hamas’s horrific attack, I introduced the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the House by a broad, bipartisan margin last night. 

It very clearly defines what antisemitism is, preventing the Department of Education from pretending it can’t be defined. It establishes that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples is the one to be used in enforcement of federal antidiscrimination laws. 

It would also expand the authority of the Department of Education to go after antisemitism on college campuses, forcing compliance with federal statutes on antisemitism, and preventing weak-kneed college and university administrators from tolerating this hatred on their campuses. 

Let me be clear. Never again is now. We cannot, as Congress, waver in our resolve and commitment to fighting hatred and antisemitism. 

History will judge us for what we do at this moment. And the question for the Senate is simple: Will you stand up to the radicals spouting antisemitism and calling for a genocide of the Israeli and Jewish people? 

I know what my answer is. And I know what our country’s answer must be. 

Mike Lawler represents New York’s 17th District.

Op Ed | Rockland County Times
By Mike Lawler

In a recent op-ed, my opponent Mondaire Jones flat-out lied about my record regarding the border crisis—a crisis that started on his watch and has been worsened by politicians he supports, like President Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

While I have been actively involved in trying to secure our border while addressing the need for immigration reform as a co-author of the bipartisan Dignity Act for nearly a year, Mondaire Jones did nothing during his time in office to secure the border.

In fact, Mondaire Jones claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was a “racist institution” and that any Democrat who supported funding ICE needed to do some “soul-searching”. If that wasn’t radical enough, Jones also claimed that Border Patrol agents were guilty of “unfathomable cruelty” in doing their jobs to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

This isn’t the only inflammatory statement Mondaire has lodged against law enforcement, either, frequently calling our brave cops “white supremacists”, and more.

During his time in office, Mondaire Jones had ample opportunity to try and address the crisis at our Southern Border. Instead, he focused on trying to find ways to exacerbate it.

Mondaire Jones was a cosponsor of the “Reimagining Asylum Processing Act of 2021” – a bill which would have codified the current Catch and Release policies of the Biden Administration.

Worse still, the bill has a specific carve out for migrants who are a security risk, stating that the “least restrictive alternative to detention” must be imposed even if the “alien poses a security threat”.

In other words, Mondaire favors lawlessness and open borders. But it gets worse – Mondaire was an original cosponsor of the “Fair Adjudications for Immigrants Act”, which, despite the innocent-enough-sounding name, would actually prevent deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of a crime.

Let me be frank: If Mondaire Jones returns to Congress, he won’t quit until the whole country is one big Sanctuary City like New York. How is that working out?

While Mondaire gives Rockland County and the Hudson Valley lip service on what he wouldn’t do to fix the problem, I’ve been working since day one on real solutions.

From the Dignity Act, to H.R.2, to the funding in the recent bipartisan appropriations package (which Mondaire refused to support) that funded thousands of new Border Patrol agents, I’m going to keep ignoring the noise from a desperate, flailing campaign, and focus on delivering real results for the Hudson Valley.

The recent bipartisan appropriations package is a good example -we were able to secure, just in Community Project Funding, more than what Mondaire Jones brought back in CPF in his entire term.

You remember Mondaire’s failed tenure, right? He served for two years where fellow Democrats pushed him out before it was even over because they knew he was too radical for the Hudson Valley. So, he fled to Brooklyn to run there, and then lost again.

I’m going to remain focused on my job, and recommend Mondaire prep for his return to cable news as a talking head.

Lohud – Opinion
By Mike Lawler

 A cop and a teacher with two small children and a modest home in Yorktown.  

A shop owner and a nurse in Suffern. 

A landscaper and a non-profit executive expecting a first child in Carmel. 

This is what middle class families look like in the Hudson Valley, and many of them are hurting.  

Prior to 2017, married New York couples were able to fully deduct state and local taxes — SALT — from their perennial federal income tax filings. The 2017 SALT revisions, signed into law by then-President Donald Trump, restricted the amount one can deduct to $10,000 for both individuals and married couples, effectively penalizing couples for tying the knot. That’s no small loss for families pinching pennies to get by.  

A recent non-partisan study estimated that amounted to a $1,700 tax increase for local families — on top of what are already the highest taxes in America. 

I promised voters I’d do something about this if elected to Congress, and I’m proud to say that, after months of passionate haranguing, I was able to force through the Rules Committee legislation I authored called “The SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act” (H.R.7160) that would provide a full $20,000 annual deduction for married couples. 

In passing the 2017 SALT deduction changes, politicians in both parties in Washington argued that families living in high tax states, like New York and California, have no right to higher federal deductions than Americans in other states. They reasoned that by penalizing taxpayers in expensive, big-government states, voters feeling the sting would pressure state and local legislators to begin reducing their tax loads. 

Good luck with that in New York, where the Democratic governor and Democratic majority in the Legislature have shown zero willingness to reduce New York’s tax load, only adding to it with outrageous new taxing schemes like the upcoming $15 congestion tax to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street by car. Indeed, Albany hasn’t substantially lowered taxes since former Gov. George Pataki’s personal income tax cut in his first year in office. That was a long, long time ago. 

With near total gridlock in Washington, a common-sense, bipartisan law change over SALT would have pointed the way for other cooperative efforts between the two parties. God knows we need that.  

When I first ran for Congress almost two years ago, I promised voters that I’d call “balls and strikes” in Washington on legislation that could help or hurt my constituents. The SALT deduction inequity for married couples is one of those issues. It doesn’t matter that my Republican colleagues passed the 2017 SALT limitations, or that they were signed into law by a president from my own political party, the revisions were bad for my neighbors, so I need to do something about it, politics be damned. 

I had been hopeful to have enough bipartisan support for this measure to finally reverse the SALT inequity on married New Yorkers. 

But, alas, partisan politics got in the way. 

For years, Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have claimed they’re fighting to lift or repeal the SALT Cap.  

Yet, just like when they controlled the White House, Senate, and House in 2021 and 2022, when Democrats were presented with a real opportunity to provide SALT relief to hundreds of thousands of families across New York State, they balked. Every single New York House Democrat voted no. Why? Because they put politics before the very people they represent with Leader Jeffries making it clear he wouldn’t allow New York Republicans a “win” in an election year. 

So much for wanting to work across party lines to address SALT. 

There are also a number of Republicans in Washington who didn’t support my bill, and they’ve let me know it. Some of them loudly. They erected every possible obstacle to my legislation along the way to kill off this latest attempt at SALT relief which Hudson Valley residents so deserve. 

Shame on both parties — especially as we had all just worked together on a landmark tax bill, which I supported, that greatly expanded the Child Tax Credit and enacted significant small business tax cuts. 

I joined with my Democratic colleague from New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, whom I am also working with in opposition to the congestion pricing tax, to lobby for these changes. Gottheimer and I even sent a joint letter to the Ways and Means Committee advocating for this critical tax relief. 

There was a time in Washington when bipartisan efforts like ours were a matter of course. We need to get back to that again. 

But rest assured, I will not be deterred. We will continue to work towards lifting the cap on SALT — which expires in 2025 — and fighting for hard working middle-class New Yorkers and Hudson Valley families that need immediate tax relief. 

Rep. Mike Lawler represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which includes Rockland County, Putnam County and portions of Westchester and Dutchess counties.

Opinion | WSJ
By Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer

We are from different states and political parties. Our views on issues vary widely. But on at least one thing, we passionately agree: New York’s “congestion pricing” plan for Midtown Manhattan, scheduled to begin later this year, is a greedy and unnecessary cash grab. It’s a slap in the face to hardworking families, small-business owners and commuters who want to put food on their family tables. It should be repealed, root and branch.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs public transportation in New York, stands to benefit from the revenue generated by congestion pricing. If the agency has its way, drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street will pay a daily driving tax of $15—nearly $4,000 a year—if they have an E-ZPass account. Those without one will be billed $22.50 a day by mail.

New York being New York, it doesn’t stop there. The MTA has unilateral authority to declare “Gridlock Alert Days” whenever it needs to line its pockets more, which will add 25% surge pricing to the daily invoice. The state has also reserved the authority to raise the congestion tax by 10% in 2024, its very first year.

For drivers entering the city from New Jersey and suburban Rockland County, N.Y., the congestion tax is a looming nightmare. Drivers will pay as much as $24.75 a day on top of the $17-a-day bridge and tunnel tolls, plus the cost of gasoline and parking. A single trip into the city could easily cost families $100 before they even get a cup of coffee or a bite to eat. New York is ostensibly trying to get workers to return to the office and diners, viewers and shoppers back into Manhattan restaurants, theaters and retail stores. Good luck with that.

To add insult to injury, the state disingenuously marketed the tax to the public. We were told it would stop gridlock. It won’t. We were told it would improve air quality. In fact, it will make it worse for hundreds of thousands of drivers and adjacent neighborhoods. We were told the MTA—the worst-run transportation agency in America—needs the money as leverage for more borrowing.

The MTA would be flush with cash if it were even moderately well run. The agency, which loses more than $700 million annually in unpaid fares, was flooded with billions of federal Covid-19 recovery dollars in recent years. Much of that money has been swallowed up by historic cost overruns. We just learned that another $1 billion will be wasted to build unnecessarily large Second Avenue subway stations—much of which the public will never see.

Notably, $1 billion is exactly what the MTA claims the congestion tax will produce in revenue during its first year. But its math is wrong. According to an analysis performed by Mr. Gottheimer’s office, the agency will actually collect $3.4 billion annually from drivers.

The MTA’s own assessments describe how the congestion tax will increase traffic in many New York and New Jersey neighborhoods and reroute carbon-belching truck traffic into low-income communities that already suffer from some of the highest asthma rates in the nation. A January 2023 study by the Black Institute titled “Just Call It a Black and Brown Toll” showed how the congestion tax will disproportionately affect inner-city communities. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

The MTA’s most egregious sin continues to be its blatant, thoughtless disregard for how it uses taxpayer money. The agency is always crying broke, but it never fixes what’s wrong. The Second Avenue subway cost New Yorkers $4.45 billion for two miles of track—$1.26 million a yard. The congestion tax is much the same: a shameless cash grab. After decades of overspending, incompetence and mismanagement, the MTA should focus on cleaning up its own mess. Hardworking families shouldn’t be forced to subsidize failure.

Mr. Lawler, a Republican, represents New York’s 17th Congressional District. Mr. Gottheimer, a Democrat, represents New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.