Senate Passes Resolution That Would Cancel Biden Administration NEPA Reform Rollbacks

What happened: The Senate Aug. 4 passed a resolution that would overturn recent Biden administration regulations to roll back 2020 reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The changes were designed to help improve the review and approval process for transportation projects.

Why it matters: ARTBA earlier expressed its support for the bill introduced by Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). The association stated that ‘Rather than looking backward, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) should be focused on implementing the project delivery reforms included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Senator Sullivan’s legislation will help achieve that goal.’

Completion of the federal environmental review process under NEPA can take as long as seven years for new transportation projects, while the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) sets a goal for completing reviews within two years. The reforms made to NEPA in 2020 that CEQ unraveled were designed to reduce unnecessary delay while maintaining NEPA’s environmental safeguards. In November 2021, ARTBA said the new CEQ rules ‘preserve the frustrations of NEPA implementation which have featured excessive litigation over projects and procedural minutiae with little or no meaningful relationship to the identification, analysis, and disclosure of the environmental effects of federal actions.’

What’s next: The path to enactment is dim as both the House of Representatives and President Joe Biden would need to approve the resolution, which is considered unlikely.