WASHINGTON, D.C. – This afternoon, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) held a public roundtable titled “FAST-41 and the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council: Progress to Date and Next Steps.” Roundtable participants discussed implementation of Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 (FAST-41) and the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council’s progress to date in streamlining federal permitting for infrastructure projects. Senators Portman and McCaskill have introduced new legislation – the Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act (S. 3017) – to build on the Permitting Council’s successes to date. The bill would eliminate the current seven-year sunset on FAST-41, allow the Permitting Council to assist more projects, and encourage permitting agencies to complete the permitting process within two years. Portman delivered opening remarks to start off the roundtable discussion.
Following is Portman’s opening remarks as prepared and you can watch his full opening statement here.
“We are here today to talk about the federal infrastructure permitting process. It’s a topic that does not get a lot of day-to-day attention in the press, but it affects all of our daily lives including roads, bridges, electricity, and environmental restoration.
“The federal infrastructure permitting process is incredibly long. It’s complicated, arcane, and bureaucratic. And the delays in the process have real costs: in time, money, jobs, and safety.
“Efforts to improve federal infrastructure permitting are particularly important at a time when we are talking about increasing funding for infrastructure. Just by improving the unacceptably long, bureaucratic permitting process, every taxpayer dollar will go further.
“Five years ago, Sen. McCaskill and I set out to try to improve that process with the Federal Permitting Improvement Act. In 2015, that bill was enacted as Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or the FAST Act, so it is now known as FAST-41.
“FAST-41 helps streamline the permitting process for some of the largest infrastructure projects—which in the law are called “covered projects.
“FAST-41 created the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council. The Council brings all the permitting agencies together at the start of covered projects to coordinate and streamline the permitting process.
“The law has a number of common sense measures. It encourages agencies to do their reviews concurrently, rather than sequentially, and to build off of each other’s work. It requires one agency to be the lead agency on each project to ensure the others get their work done. And it requires the agencies to post a timeline on a public, online dashboard so project sponsors and the public can keep track of where they are in the permitting process.
“When Sen. McCaskill and I came up with this idea, we hoped it would save both project sponsors and our government time and money. Based on the Council’s testimony today, I think it is safe to say that the Permitting Council has significantly exceeded our expectations.
“Over the past year and a half, the Council has saved projects $1 billion in avoided costs.
“And it has done so without a permanent Executive Director and with only a bare minimum of funding. I want to take a moment to offer Acting Executive Director Angie Colamaria, the former Acting Executive Director and current Deputy Director Janet Pfleeger, and your whole team my sincere thanks and congratulations. The laws Congress enacts are only as good as the people who carry them out. These cost savings show the Council is fulfilling its mission admirably.
“But we know there is more work to be done.
“The President still needs to appoint a permanent Executive Director. I’m disappointed that has not happened yet and expressed that view to the administration. And I’m going to continue to advocate to increase the Council’s funding.
“Based on the experience of the past two and a half years, Senator McCaskill and I have introduced a new bill, S. 3017, the Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act, to improve FAST-41. Most critically to me, that bill would remove the seven-year sunset on FAST-41.
“It also would allow more projects to apply to be covered, and it would set a two-year goal for each project’s permitting process. If agencies realize they will need longer to permit a project, they can explain why and what they will do to mitigate delays.
“And the bill will allow the Permitting Council to consult on non-covered projects to share its expertise and help resolve conflicts.
“These are modest, smart reforms that build on the successes we’re already seeing. I’m looking forward to hearing from each of our roundtable participants today about FAST-41’s successes and where we can work to improve the permitting process going forward.”
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