U.S. Reps. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ) introduced legislation that seeks to digitize and streamline the permitting process for transportation infrastructure.
Their bill, the Interactive Federal Review Act, would direct the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to select at least 10 federal highway projects to demonstrate the use of interactive, digital, cloud-based platforms. These platforms are designed to speed up the environmental analysis and community engagement processes required in FHWA projects.
“Countries like Australia, Italy, and France outpace America’s permitting process by years,” Johnson said. “The slow, laborious process disincentivizes investments and expansion in our economy. There is no need for the process to be on paper – we must bring these environmental reviews onto a user-friendly, electronic platform to speed up these reviews, and by doing so, our bill could cut review times in half. America’s roads and bridges need quicker approval to ensure the safety and security of drivers, passengers, and our supply chain.”
The time it takes to complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has nearly tripled since the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) enactment more than 50 years ago.
According to FHWA, a typical EIS took 2.5 years on average to perform in the 1970s. In the 1980s it took 4.5 years and about 5 years in the 1990s. Currently, a typical EIS process takes an average of 6.5 years to complete. A project that takes longer than five years to complete an EIS process is considered delayed.
The Interactive Federal Review Act would address one of the root causes of the delays of environmental reviews for infrastructure projects by moving the NEPA documents from trading static PDFs over email to interactive, cloud-based platforms.
“The current environmental review process for critical infrastructure is needlessly slow and cumbersome. Highway projects like the I-11 take years and years to get off the ground–wasting taxpayer dollars and throwing the brakes on Arizona’s economic growth,” said Stanton. “Our bipartisan Interactive Federal Review Act brings this process into the 21st century, while maintaining responsible environmental stewardship.”
These digital tools are estimated to shorten the cumulative amount of time spent reviewing documents on traditional schedules for large projects by 50 percent. This is done through real-time, concurrent reviews by agencies and more transparency of the NEPA process for impacted communities and individuals.
“The Interactive Federal Review Act proposes replacing outdated PDF-based environmental reviews with interactive, cloud-based platforms for NEPA documents. This could cut review times for major infrastructure projects by 50% through real-time, multi-agency reviews and increased transparency, benefiting communities and the aggregates industry,” Michele Stanley, interim CEO of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, said.
U.S. Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.