'Not An Area Of American Excellence': Dusty Johnson Presses Buttigieg On Permitting Process

3 months ago

During a House Transportation Committee hearing last week, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) spoke about the permitting process in the United States.

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Transcript

00:00recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Madam Chair, Mr. Secretary. Of course, there are always

00:03going to be a certain number of things you and I disagree on, but I have to start with a compliment.

00:07In a town where so many of folks, both in my party and your own, seem to peddle fear and anger,

00:13some of them almost exclusively, you bring a far more professional and respectful approach

00:19to your work. And the communication that I get from you and your team, I think, helps all of us

00:23be better. So thank you with that. As you know, sir, we have a tremendous amount of flooding in

00:28my state and surrounding states. It's just devastating to watch people, friends of mine,

00:35their home, everything, all the physical possessions that they own washed away by

00:39these floodwaters. As you know, during disasters, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

00:45has the ability to waive some rules, things like weight limits, hours of service, so that impacted

00:51communities can get help more quickly. I've got some concerns that a recently finalized rule by

00:58FMCA is going to make it more difficult for governors to access those flexibilities. I just

01:05wanted to gauge any thoughts you would have on that promulgation. Let me certainly, first of all,

01:12tell you that our heart goes out to those we saw impacted by recent storms in your state, Iowa,

01:16and other communities, and would agree that it has been important to have flexibility on things

01:23like hours of service in the context of those disasters. Now that you've raised this, I want

01:28to become more familiar with some of the areas of overlap or concern where more recent rulemakings

01:34could diminish flexibility on that, because we certainly leaned into that at many moments,

01:38notably including the Baltimore Bridge collapse, to try to provide some relief.

01:43And I think we've got to, listen, I get it. A lot of these independent and quasi-independent

01:47agencies, it's not like they work for the Cabinet Secretary. It's not like a memo comes out and

01:51they salute, and it's more complicated than that. They need to make their decisions based on an

01:55evidentiary record. Clearly, these decisions need to be abiding. They need to go to court and defend

02:00them. That's what's so surprising about this. I mean, the previous flexibility, the waiver

02:05authority for governors allowed them a 30-day period. This is going to shorten it to 14.

02:11Keep in mind, the evidentiary record before the administration is that there hasn't been

02:17any particular abuse that they identified, and that there is no evidence that there's been a

02:23degradation of public safety because of a 30-day waiver period. And so, to the extent we should

02:29have good decisions based on good data, I'm grateful for your commitment to dive in and

02:34better understand that situation. Let's go to permitting. This has been a consistent area of

02:40agreement that you and I have shared as you've appeared before the committee. I think in the

02:46couple of years you and I have been talking about this, we've made some progress. Let's be honest,

02:50it's modest progress. It is still, as you've talked about in your comments in the past, far,

02:54far more difficult to get a project cited in this country than it is in most every other

03:00developed nation. This is not an area of American excellence. I've had some success in working with

03:07my colleagues to advance a digital NEPA review, gotten that language in the aviation bill,

03:14yesterday on the water resources bill. I wanted to just touch base with you, sir, and see if

03:19your shop has been able to make any progress, particularly in the area of digital NEPA review

03:24and processing. Thank you. I share your sense of urgency and interest here, and I would not

03:31challenge your assessment that while there's been progress, it has been modest. We have taken a

03:35number of steps to try to make the NEPA and permitting process more efficient. We've expanded

03:39a liaison program that can provide targeted assistance to project sponsors who would benefit

03:45from that. We've been doing more with programmatic agreements so that if multiple projects have

03:49similar characteristics, they can travel together, and we think we can cut some of the red tape that

03:54way. Specifically to your question about web-based digital, or sometimes e-NEPA is the term of art,

04:01we certainly see a lot of potential here. There's too much literal paperwork in the paperwork.

04:06One thing we've done to try to embrace that is a 750,000 modernizing NEPA challenge,

04:12knowing that some of the best ideas probably won't come from the building but will come from

04:16around the country. That just launched in April, but we're looking forward to seeing the different

04:19ideas that come back from project sponsors there. And of course, we're working to maximize the use

04:23of categorical exclusions, which just bring a lot less of that process with them. I do think

04:29categorical exclusions are a ripe area. I mean, we obviously make use of a lot of them, but I think

04:34there is so much more there. My closing comment, Mr. Secretary, would be at some point,

04:41you're just going to have a brainstorm, and maybe as you drift off to sleep or you're

04:44eating your Cheerios in the morning, of an idea that might be a little politically dangerous.

04:50It might upset people on your team or on my team, because let's get it. We both get it. The

04:55citing of large projects in this country is fraught with tremendous emotion and political peril.

05:02If you're looking for partners to advance your big, dangerous, but important idea,

05:08this committee is ready to work with you. Thanks. I appreciate that and welcome that. Thank you.

'Not An Area Of American Excellence': Dusty Johnson Presses Buttigieg On Permitting Process

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