The MTA had been hoping to start tolling drivers who enter Manhattan’s central business district starting in January 2021. The tolls to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street were supposed to support the MTA’s $51.5 billion overhaul plan, which, in turn, was supposed to include substantial subway signal improvements and improved station accessibility.

But the MTA needs federal approval for congestion pricing because some of the impacted roads are federally funded. To get that federal approval, the MTA needs to do an environmental review — either a lengthy, typically yearslong environmental impact statement, or a more abbreviated environmental assessment.

The MTA and City Hall have been asking the federal government which study it should pursue since April, as POLITICO reported. The federal government has yet to give them guidance. Some officials have quietly suggested the MTA should have just assumed the federal government would want the more in-depth assessment and begun work on it immediately.

But on Thursday, Cuomo said he assumed the federal approval would be “perfunctory.”