U.S. Senate Approves Legislation To Roll Back Biden Administration Permitting Rules

On a 50-47 vote last week, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution to roll back Biden administration permitting rules under the National Environmental Policy Act that were put into place earlier this year. More specifically, the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution, sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), would reverse the Council on Environmental Quality’s move to eliminate standards approved during the Trump administration.

The CRA allows Congress to reverse a recently finalized rule through a simple majority vote.

Sen. Sullivan framed the issue as being about “the dignity of work” since the rules would make it more difficult to build infrastructure in the United States. Unfortunately, the measure faces an uphill battle in the House, and even if the resolution were to pass in that chamber, President Biden would be likely to veto it.

As Connecting the Dots reported last year, the Biden administration CEQ proposal would:

• Restore the requirement that federal agencies evaluate all the relevant environmental impacts of the decisions they are making;
• Restore the full authority of agencies to work with communities to develop and analyze alternative approaches that could minimize environmental and public health costs; and
• Establish CEQ’s NEPA regulations as a floor, rather than a ceiling, for the environmental review standards that federal agencies should be meeting.

These changes would likely slow down the federal permitting process and increase the cost of infrastructure projects. That is because the new rules would greatly expand the time it takes to complete environmental impact analysis, shift the focus away from meeting the project developer’s goals, and promote “government agency freelancing on NEPA permitting requirements that may delay or block projects.”