Legislation has now been introduced in Congress to update the National Environmental Policy Act as it pertains to infrastructure project reviews and costs.
Officially titled the Building U.S. Infrastructure Through Limited Delays & Efficient Reviews, the legislation will shorten the review process time for those projects.
As introduced by Louisiana Representative Garret Graves, the legislation will replace a review process that many builders have described as burdensome.
That process, said Graves, has made it “longer to study projects than the time needed to complete them.”
Graves added that his bill will not do away with the National Environmental Policy Act, but will rather update that legislation so that it can “fulfill its purpose and deliver to taxpayers the infrastructure enhancements, coastal wetlands restoration, flood protection, and other improvements it currently impairs.”
The legislation has won the backing of the American Council of Engineering Companies, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, and Associated Builders and Contractors, among other groups.
Signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, the National Environmental Policy Act requires that all government agencies must compile environmental impact statements and environmental assessments regarding public infrastructure projects.
A number of environmental groups have rallied in support of the National Environmental Policy Act, with the Sierra Club saying the statute is “fundamentally about informed and transparent decision-making.”
The organization adds that the act “requires federal agencies to analyze and disclose a project’s foreseeable environmental, economic, social, and public health impacts.”
Graves’ bill is now under review in the House Transportation Committee.
By Garry Boulard
