Washington, DC – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) reintroduced the Reducing Environmental Barriers to Unified Infrastructure and Land Development (REBUILD) Act, H.R. 481. The legislation would cut red tape and reduce costs for infrastructure projects.
“The REBUILD Act reduces the cost and time necessary to build infrastructure projects at a time when communities are struggling to find the resources necessary to construct them,” said Rep. Calvert. “After eight years of the Obama Administration making it more difficult and costly to build infrastructure projects it’s long past time that we relieve the burden the federal government places on critical investments in infrastructure.”
The REBUILD Act allows any state to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with a designated federal agency who has environmental review responsibilities under NEPA and assume the review responsibilities of that agency. Under the REBUILD Act, states would still be required to uphold the same NEPA standards or greater. By assuming these responsibilities states could integrate NEPA compliance into their own state approval process thereby streamlining construction timelines and eliminating the need for redundant reviews at the federal level.
The streamlined process is modeled after a pilot program created in SAFETEA-LU (Section 327 -Title 23 USC) that allowed a limited number of states to take on the task of ensuring National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance for highway projects under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In those states that chose to assume this responsibility, the length of time to complete a project review was reduced by an average of 17 months while also ensuring the goals of the NEPA process were not compromised.
Source: Congressman Ken Calvert
