ALBANY — State lawmakers on Monday at least temporarily abandoned their attempt to change New York’s special election timeline, and sources familiar with discussions say it’s all to do with congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Friday afternoon, after days of rumor, a bill sponsored by the Senate and Assembly majority leaders, both Democrats, appeared in the state Capitol. Under its terms, the legislature was handing power to the governor to either call an election to fill a vacant congressional seat within 85 to 95 days of the vacancy, or to schedule it for the next general election on the first Tuesday of November.

The bill also made changes to the timeline for elections to replace state legislature seats, similarly allowing them to be scheduled for a general election date if the seat vacancy occurs within 40 to 100 days of the general election.

At the same time, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, is preparing to step down from her congressional seat to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. While the congresswoman’s final confirmation vote is unscheduled, sources within the local Republican Party have said it seems leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are pushing to delay her confirmation vote to April so two other vacant Republican seats in the House can be replaced.

State legislators were prepared to vote on the bill Monday. After its Friday introduction, the bill was headed to committee review in both chambers. But a last-minute announcement was made before voting started in both chambers came. The bill would not be voted on Monday.

Arguments in support of the bill fell away in the face of wider negotiations with the Trump White House — and it all ties back to congestion pricing in Manhattan. The toll to enter the densest part of Manhattan, fought over and planned for decades, is unpopular with President Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the toll using his power over the U.S. Department of Transportation.

He and Gov. Kathy Hochul have held at least two phone conversations in the last two weeks regarding the future of the program, and have openly acknowledged that negotiations over the future of the program, meant to provide much-needed funding for the ailing Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are ongoing, although it’s not entirely clear what the negotiation points have been.

According to a source close to the negotiations not able to speak on record, New York’s 21st Congressional District and its future representation has been a part of that conversation. The source said Hochul doesn’t want to give up a piece of leverage in her push to keep the toll or to secure another funding path for the MTA.

The source also noted that Stefanik has not vacated her seat yet, and isn’t likely to until April when the other two House vacancies can be filled — leaving a lot of runway for more discussion over the race and the elections timeline.

Republicans argued that New York Democrats were pushing to disenfranchise North Country voters in a heavily Republican district, all to play politics over the House majority and the ability of Congress to pass Republican-led legislation. The Republican majority in the House now, with the two vacancies, is only held by three seats. By delaying the vote to replace Stefanik, even with the two current vacancies refilled, that keeps the majority in Congress historically slim.

Republicans railed against the proposition over the weekend after the late Friday bill publishing, and gathered in the state Capitol on Monday to continue their push against the plan.

“It’s not about cost savings, it’s not about participation. It’s not about saving democracy,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt II. “It’s about maximizing their partisan political advantage.”

Republicans had appealed to the U.S. Department of Justice last week, requesting the new Republican administration review New York’s lawmakers and their movements and discussions around the potential special election change. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-Pearl River, called for a RICO investigation — a term that relates to federal investigations into organized crime and racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

“I am going to be requesting that the Department of Justice open up a RICO investigation into New York State, because this is as corrupt a state as we have seen,” Lawler said last week.

On Monday, the Republican state legislators continued that appeal, and Ortt said he believed that the DOJ needs to review New York’s recent history on elections and district drawing.

“I don’t want anyone, including the attorney general, to look at just this,” Ortt said. “I want her to look at all the way back to the redistricting.”

Democratic defenders of the bill had argued it was a measure meant to make elections administration cheaper by eliminating an extra election from the calendar, while also boosting voter turnout by putting the special election on a day when people were already planning to vote.

This year, the November ballot will include mainly local elections including some county legislator races, local village and town offices and judicial races. New York has passed a law aimed at putting almost all general elections for local offices in even years, which is set to take effect by 2026 for most municipalities.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea A. Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, told reporters during a press conference last week that they are “looking at ways to figure out how we can get more people to the polls, because we enjoy that, as well as finding ways to consolidate elections if possible.”

Reports at the time indicated that state Democrats were considering extending the timeline by a few months, perhaps lining up the eventual NY-21 race with the June primaries. Friday’s bill that would have permitted the governor to schedule the election and any other congressional vacancies up to 14 months after a potential vacancy, and at least eight months from now, was somewhat of a surprise for observers in Albany.

It appears that, at least for now, voters in NY-21 can expect the same special election process that’s been in place since the years of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Once Stefanik resigns her seat, the governor will have 10 days to schedule an election to replace her, which must occur within 70 to 80 days of that date, typically on a Tuesday.

That process replaced an older system where the governor had sole power to schedule a special election for congressional seats or state legislature seats. The governor could choose not to set a special election, as Cuomo did with 12 state legislature seats left vacant in 2014.

State Republicans called the midday reversal from the change a victory. Sen. Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Elections Committee that did not review the bill in their first annual meeting Monday, said the failure of the bill means NY-21 won’t go without representation, and thanked his fellow Assembly members who represent parts of NY-21.

“We stood united against this attempt to undermine our democracy and representation,” he said. “This bill undermined the very foundation of our republic and the principles upon which our government is built. As this victory is celebrated, I will remain vigilant to ensure that another scheme to leave 776,971 people without representation does not read its ugly head in the future.”

Assemblyman Scott Gray, R-Watertown, had similar concerns about future attempts to change the calendar.

“Any idea of reviving Assembly Bill A4881 on special elections — after putting it on hold for Gov. Hochul’s negotiations with Trump — only reinforces how politically motivated this move always was,” Gray posted on social media.

“Kill this bill for good!” he added.