Senate Republicans on the transportation committee explored strategies for streamlining the federal permitting process for infrastructure projects and mobility corridors.
During an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing Feb. 19, senators reviewed proposals aimed at consolidating permitting regulations and guidance central to the nation’s transportation network. Senior Republicans on the panel agreed with criticism expressed by Trump administration officials about the intricacies associated with such permitting rules.
“Years of changes in guidance and regulations from administration to administration and a complex web of judicial rulings have resulted in an ever-expanding hodgepodge of often duplicative and contradictory requirements,” committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told colleagues. “While this confusing and complex body of administrative and common law has grown over the past half century, Congress has not stepped in to provide the holistic clarifications or modernization.”
Reforming the nation’s permitting processes has long been a priority of the Trump administration and most congressional Republicans. During this session of Congress, they intend to draft policies that will facilitate the construction of big-picture infrastructure projects while continuing to safeguard communities from pollution and neglect. An overhaul by the committee of such policies will be used to inform the chamber’s legislation specific to permitting later this year.
Senior Republicans and President Donald Trump’s team argue that provisions anchoring the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act lead to the need to seek approvals from multiple agencies. This scenario, critics say, typically results in differing responses from environmental agencies.
“This is a subject that vexes people in both parties at all levels of government,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a lead co-sponsor of the Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act, with Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.). The bill is designed to expedite approvals for major projects.
At the hearing, the Senate panel hosted executives in the construction and energy industries who have called for improvements to project-approval procedures. Stakeholders pointed to a consensus for addressing infrastructure and energy needs that would enhance manufacturing and freight operations.
Leah Pilconis, general counsel with the Associated General Contractors of America, explained: “Allowing litigation to disrupt fully approved projects undermines regulatory certainty, wastes taxpayer dollars and jeopardizes jobs. Worse still, granting injunctive relief for projects already under construction creates unnecessary risk and delays. Congress must act to protect the taxpayers who benefit from infrastructure projects from indefinite legal challenges.”
A comprehensive review and potential update of the permitting landscape has gained bipartisan backing in recent years. While modifications to permitting rules and regulations have been enacted in highway policy bills, Democrats acknowledge there is room for improvement.
“We need to build out a grid to meet current and future demand,” emphasized Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the panel’s ranking member. “Seventy percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old, and they’re showing their age. We know what we need to do. We need to build, and fast.”
On the House side, senior Republicans are pursuing approaches for accelerating permitting rules and regulations. A fix to what they describe as a cumbersome permitting process could be included in the GOP’s upcoming procedural budget legislation or a multiyear highway policy measure.
“States, manufacturers, energy producers, cities, farmers, builders, homeowners, utilities and many others rely on a Clean Water Act permitting process that is easy to understand, easy to follow and easy to implement,” Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said Feb. 11. “Unfortunately, too often these groups we refer to as regulated communities are left in the dark or actively undermined by increased regulation under the [Clean Water Act] by trial lawyers looking to make a buck, entrenched bureaucrats who don’t have the country’s best interests at heart and administrations who bend the knee to radical environmental activists.”