It’s been a busy week in Congress, where two bills have passed the U.S. House of Representatives and now await debate in the Senate.
The Promoting Efficient Review of Modern Infrastructure for Today (PERMIT) Act (H.R. 3898), introduced by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), limits the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA) by narrowing the definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS), or navigable waters.
Fluctuations in the scope of WOTUS are a hallmark of changes in congressional majorities, which can lead to uncertainties for developers and federal agencies alike.
The Act streamlines the CWA permitting process by excluding waste treatment systems, ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, prior converted cropland, and groundwater from the WOTUS definition. It also grants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discretion to determine further exclusions.
The PERMIT Act also creates a new category of nationwide permits for linear infrastructure projects that will speed the approval of infrastructure, power, and utility-based infrastructure while maintaining environmental impact safeguards needed to build infrastructure responsibly. To accomplish this, the bill incorporated another proposed piece of legislation, the Nationwide Permitting Improvement Act (H.R. 3927).
The PERMIT Act has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Another key bill that passed the House this week is the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, introduced by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and sponsored by an even slate of seven Republicans and seven Democrats.
The primary purpose of the SPEED Act is to expedite review of construction projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by limiting the scope of the act, setting reasonable timelines for filing judicial review claims, clarifying that federal funding and assistance should not be the determinant of whether an agency action is determined to be a “major Federal action,” and codifying other needed reforms to NEPA.
Federal projects are frequent targets of NEPA litigation, often from both sides of a project or issue. Such lawsuits can significantly delay projects, sometimes causing outright cancellations.
The SPEED Act has also been assigned to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
“The U.S. House of Representatives deserves praise for passing important legislation reforming America’s broken permitting process and NEPA abuse that has stalled IEC member construction projects, created uncertainty for developers and builders, and needlessly increased construction costs,” said IEC lobbyist Ben Brubeck. “IEC looks forward to continuing its work with the U.S. Senate to send the SPEED and PERMIT acts to President Donald Trump’s desk in 2026 so IEC members can continue building and powering America.”