Rep. Bruce Westerman on Fixing America's Broken Permitting and NEPA Process

The Broken Permitting Process

• 📌 The current permitting process creates roadblocks to American innovation and development.
• 💸 It results in increased taxpayer expenses with little to show for the costs incurred.

Efforts to Reform NEPA

• 📜 The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 aimed to address this by imposing a 2-year deadline and a 150-page cap on environmental impact statements.
• 📊 Despite these measures, the Council on Environmental Quality reports that 61% of environmental impact statements still exceed the two-year completion time.
• 🏛️ Both the executive and judicial branches have taken steps to introduce regulatory common sense, with President Trump's executive order directing agencies to confine NEPA analysis to applicable law, and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling narrowing the scope of NEPA.

Call for Congressional Action

• 🤝 It is time for Congress to take bipartisan, bicameral action to reform the broken permitting and regulatory laws.
• 🚀 Such reforms are essential for America to thrive and unleash its full potential.