Just heard today that one of our Oregon Republican Reps has introduced bipartisan legislation related to permitting reform called the “FREE Act”. From the press release I see, it does not have a bill number yet. Will CCL National be reviewing this bill and letting us know whether we get behind it? Dana N - I will email you the press release I got. Congresswomen Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR05) and Celeste Maloy (UT02) are the original sponsors.
Hi @Daniela Brod. It's not a very bipartisan piece of legislation – Peltola in Alaska is the only Democratic co-sponsor, and the rest are all Republicans. It looks to me very similar to a big broadening of categorical exclusions, where federal agencies would be encouraged to greenlight any kind of permit that can meet some specific requirements that they set.
But the biggest challenge in the permitting process tends to be siting and associated site-specific impacts, so that seems like a tricky issue to me, because this seems like it would largely ignore those site specifics. So I think it's probably too broad in its efforts to streamline permitting, and hence unlikely to get any significant support from Democratic lawmakers (and probably just not a great idea, if I'm understanding it correctly).
@Dana Nuccitelli We have heard of some Democratic interest in working with Republicans in the House. Might that help balance the bill?
Hi @Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey. My impression is that this particular bill is too much of a ‘machete where a scalpel is needed’ kind of approach, but there are of course ongoing bipartisan negotiations on permitting reform. But Jenn suggests that if your MOC is involved in this bill, you can use it as an example to show appreciation for their taking action on permitting.
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