[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4503 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4503
To improve environmental reviews and authorizations through the use of
interactive, digital, and cloud-based platforms, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 17, 2025
Mr. Johnson of South Dakota (for himself and Mr. Peters) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural
Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To improve environmental reviews and authorizations through the use of
interactive, digital, and cloud-based platforms, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``ePermit Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) coordination between Federal, State, and local agencies
and project sponsors is critical to ensuring the timely and
effective completion of environmental reviews and
authorizations, including through the sharing of relevant
information, alignment of environmental review timelines, and
integration of authorizations, while maintaining compliance
with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements;
(2) digital strategies for environmental reviews have
proven to make the community engagement process more
accessible, available, and transparent to all stakeholders,
especially the communities in which new projects are built;
(3) establishing robust data architectures will ensure data
integrity, improve transparency, reduce costs, and enhance the
ability of the Federal Government to serve the public;
(4) Federal agency use of modern software that can track
the full lifecycle of environmental reviews and authorizations
is critical for--
(A) effective project management and process
improvement;
(B) enabling workflow automation, transparency, and
tracking; and
(C) simplifying reporting requirements;
(5) modern business process management systems that track
Federal agency workflows and produce interoperable event, task,
and other milestone data that can be shared with other Federal
agency systems can reduce costs and improve performance for
Federal agencies responsible for environmental reviews and
authorizations;
(6) case management systems--
(A) are essential tools for managing the tasks and
activities associated with environmental reviews and
authorizations; and
(B) provide Federal agencies more data and insight
into such environmental reviews and authorizations;
(7) well-defined business rules can enable process
automation that allows Federal agencies responsible for
environmental reviews or authorizations to expedite routine
tasks and workflows, and improve transparency and accuracy of
project timeline estimates, which in turn can help project
sponsors better plan for application preparation and project
delivery milestones;
(8) taking a standardized, digital-first perspective to
environmental reviews and authorizations at Federal agencies
responsible for environmental reviews or authorizations will
improve document quality, lead to more concise reports, enable
the reuse and accessibility of the data underpinning Federal
agency analyses and decisions, and enable objective,
technology-assisted evaluation of environmental impacts,
analysis, and documentation, and accelerate future
environmental reviews and authorizations;
(9) Federal agencies responsible for environmental reviews
or authorizations, project sponsors, and the public should have
access to up-to-date information on accurate timelines and the
status of environmental reviews and authorizations; and
(10) allowing for seamless information exchange among
Federal agencies and between Federal agencies and project
sponsors will increase predictability and efficiency of
environmental review and authorization schedules for project
sponsors.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF DATA STANDARDS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Chair of the Council on Environmental
Quality, in consultation with the Federal Permitting Improvement
Steering Council, the Chief Information Officers Council, the Office of
Management and Budget, and other relevant stakeholders and Federal
agencies, shall develop, publish, and iteratively update data standards
for the collection and curation of authorization data by Federal
agencies, which shall be used to--
(1) assist with environmental reviews and authorizations;
(2) organize, define, and standardize various concepts,
formats, and protocols that are included in environmental
reviews and authorizations; and
(3) reduce the need for redundant environmental reviews by
creating a shared vocabulary and software systems that will
support data interoperability and automatic data exchange
between Federal agencies.
(b) Inclusions.--The data standards developed, published, and
iteratively updated under subsection (a) shall include the following:
(1) A standardized taxonomy that allows Federal agencies to
identify and track data types, relationships, and values.
(2) Comprehensive categories for data, such as--
(A) projects;
(B) processes;
(C) environmental documents;
(D) public comments;
(E) geospatial information;
(F) public engagement events, as applicable by
process or Federal agency;
(G) case events; and
(H) milestones to ensure clarity and uniformity.
SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE TOOLS.
The Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, in consultation
with the Administrator of General Services, the Federal Permitting
Improvement Steering Council, the Chief Information Officers Council,
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and other relevant
stakeholders and Federal agencies, shall design, test, and build
prototype tools for environmental reviews and authorizations that will
assist Federal agencies in implementing the minimum functional
requirements described in section 5. The Chair of the Council on
Environmental Quality shall prioritize designing, testing, and building
tools under this section that--
(1) support authorization case management systems that
manage tasks, milestones, and activities associated with
environmental reviews and authorizations, and provide Federal
agencies more data and insight into such reviews and
authorizations;
(2) enable application submission and tracking portals used
by project sponsors, enabling greater transparency;
(3) facilitate automated applications, environmental
reviews. and authorizations;
(4) allow data exchange between Federal agency systems; and
(5) accelerate complex environmental reviews.
SEC. 5. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA STANDARDS
AND MINIMUM FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Publication.--Not later than 30 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Chair of the Council on Environmental
Quality shall publish guidance for how each Federal agency responsible
for environmental reviews or authorizations implements--
(1) the data standards published under section 3; and
(2) the following minimum functional requirements:
(A) Application data sharing that enables automated
transfer of relevant environmental review and
authorization data among Federal agencies.
(B) Automated project screening to assist frontline
staff with reviewing project sponsor provided
information for completeness and accuracy and
determining if a categorical exclusion or other general
authorization applies to an action. Automated project
screening may not be used by the Council on
Environmental Quality or a Federal agency to unlawfully
restrict any activities on Federal lands.
(C) Public availability of screening criteria and
related decision models.
(D) Automated case management tools which include a
repository of relevant data and metadata that enable
advanced tracking, reporting, and optimization to aid
workflows.
(E) Integrated geographic information system
analysis tools which incorporate geospatial data layers
and models for each resource analyzed as part of an
environmental review or authorization for a given study
area.
(F) Document management tools that preserve
metadata associated with geospatial analysis, modeling,
and other analytic processes conducted during an
environmental review or authorization, to support
future reviews and enable Artificial Intelligence-
assisted analysis of past decisions.
(G) Automated comment compilation and analysis
tools, including services for comment categorization
and response that handle the lifecycle of comment
submission, analysis, categorization and response with
Artificial Intelligence support where appropriate.
(H) Administrative record management tools that
maintain both portable document formats and data-rich
repositories accessible to both machine and human
users.
(I) Common or interoperable Federal agency services
that integrate shared services, shared applications,
and common user experiences for Federal agency staff,
project sponsors, and the public.
(b) Inclusions.--The guidance published under this section shall
include the following:
(1) Guidelines for cloud-based storage, data sharing
protocols, and application programming interfaces to enable the
Council on Environmental Quality to work with Federal agencies
to use authorization data to aid Federal agencies in
modernizing their environmental reviews and authorizations and
for iterative development of the authorization portal.
(2) Provisions that support scalability and adaptability of
the minimum requirements to emerging technologies.
SEC. 6. IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA STANDARDS AND MINIMUM FUNCTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Implementation.--The head of each Federal agency responsible
for environmental reviews or authorizations shall--
(1) not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act--
(A) compare existing Federal agency systems for
environmental reviews and authorizations with the data
standards published under section 3 and the minimum
functional requirements described in section 5(a)(2)
and report findings from such comparison to the Council
on Environmental Quality;
(B) assess whether existing Federal agency
technological capabilities are consistent with the data
standards published under section 3 and the minimum
functional requirements described in section 5(a)(2);
(C) submit to the Council on Environmental Quality
a report that estimates the completion dates for
implementing the data standards published under section
3 and the minimum functional requirements described in
section 5(a)(2); and
(D) submit to the Council on Environmental Quality,
in consultation with the Council on Environmental
Quality, an implementation plan that--
(i) describes how the Federal agency will
implement the data standards published under
section 3 and the minimum functional
requirements described in section 5(a)(2); and
(ii) describes how, to the extent the
Federal agency determines necessary to meet
relevant statutory requirements, the Federal
agency will adopt or implement the prototype
tools tested, designed, and built under section
4; and
(2) not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, begin implementing the data standards published under
section 3 and the minimum functional requirements described in
section 5(a)(2).
(b) Report.--Not less frequently than twice each year, the Chief
Information Officer of each Federal agency, in consultation with the
Chief Environmental Review and Permitting Officer of each Federal
agency, shall submit to the Council on Environmental Quality and the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget a report on the
progress of the Federal agency towards meeting the requirements of
subsection (a).
SEC. 7. UNIFIED INTERAGENCY DATA SYSTEM.
(a) In General.--
(1) Unified interagency data system.--To the maximum extent
practicable, the Chair of the Council of Environmental Quality
and the head of each Federal agency responsible for
environmental reviews or authorizations shall iteratively
develop and maintain a unified interagency data system
consisting of interconnected Federal agency systems and shared
services for environmental reviews and authorizations.
(2) Authorization portal.--
(A) In general.--The shared services developed and
maintained under paragraph (1) shall include a common
interactive, digital, cloud-based authorization portal,
which shall--
(i) be designed in a manner consistent
with--
(I) the recommendations of the
Council on Environmental Quality
included in the study submitted
pursuant to section 110 of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42
U.S.C. 4336d) titled ``Council on
Environmental Quality Report to
Congress on the Potential for Online
and Digital Technologies to Address
Delays in Reviews and Improve Public
Accessibility and Transparency under 42
U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)''; and
(II) the minimum functional
requirements described in section
5(a)(2);
(ii) serve as a centralized platform for
tracking and displaying real-time data on
environmental reviews and authorizations made
available through application programming
interfaces or other reporting mechanisms from
Federal agency systems that are compliant with
the data standards and data architecture
described in this Act;
(iii) include a mechanism for the
dissemination of relevant information (such as
a notice of intent for public comment, public
meetings, project statuses, or a notice of
intent to begin an environmental review) to
local communities, as applicable;
(iv) allow a project sponsor to submit all
necessary documentation for environmental
reviews and authorizations in one unified and
secure portal;
(v) support interactive, digital, and
cloud-based tools enabling applicants to edit
documents and collaborate with relevant Federal
agencies in real time;
(vi) support visual features, including
video, animation, geographic information system
displays, interactive maps, and three-
dimensional renderings;
(vii) provide for the exchange of
information to and from Federal agency data
systems via an application programming
interface or another reporting mechanisms;
(viii) allow for the submission of
geospatial data associated with project
location, footprint, and impact;
(ix) support automatic documentation of
submission and process timelines; and
(x) allow the following metrics to be
tracked over time--
(I) estimates of achieved
efficiencies, such as reductions in the
time between receipt of applications
and final authorization decisions;
(II) comparisons of authorization
timelines before and after the
implementation of this Act;
(III) usage of the authorization
portal and other statistics from the
Digital Analytics Program;
(IV) metrics on the number of
public comments received, responses
provided, and community meetings held;
(V) the number of projects subject
to litigation based on authorization
deficiencies or inefficiencies;
(VI) a list of Federal agencies
that are not yet fully compliant with
the data standards published under
section 3 and the minimum functional
requirements described in section
5(a)(2), along with their progress
toward compliance; and
(VII) examples or repositories of
Federal agency-developed digital
workflows enabled by the implementation
of this Act, including visualizations
of data sharing, authorizations and
decision logic, and environmental
reviews.
(B) Administrative support.--The Administrator of
General Services shall host the authorization portal as
a shared service for Congress, Federal agencies, and
the public.
(C) Accessability.--The authorization portal shall
be accessible to Congress, Federal agencies, and the
public, with appropriate safeguards to protect
sensitive or classified information and information
restricted by user type as appropriate.
(D) Public accessibility.--To the extent
practicable and consistent with other law, the
authorization portal shall provide public access to
non-sensitive data, including authorization timelines,
location, project type, environmental reviews, and
mitigation measures.
(E) Congressional access and oversight.--
(i) In general.--The authorization portal
shall provide Congress with direct access to
aggregated performance data and other analytics
to enable real-time oversight of Federal
agencies.
(ii) Technical assistance.--The Council on
Environmental Quality shall provide to Congress
technical assistance upon request to ensure
effective use of the authorization portal for
oversight purposes.
(3) Cybersecurity and compliance considerations.--The
authorization portal shall be designed to promote
interoperability, reduce redundancy, and ensure compliance and
coordination with other laws, including--
(A) section 552a of title 5, United States Code
(commonly referred to as the Privacy Act of 1974), and
subchapter II of chapter 35 of title 44, United States
Code;
(B) the Federal Risk and Authorization Management
Program established under section 3608 of title 44,
United States Code; and
(C) the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency of the Department of Homeland Security, for a
case in which the project is in coordination with a
Federal agency with stringent security requirements.
(b) Deadlines.--
(1) Shared services pilot.--Not later than one year after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Council on Environmental
Quality shall oversee piloting of shared services for
environmental reviews and authorizations, including the
authorization portal under subsection (a)(2).
(2) Unified system development and implementation.--To the
maximum extent practicable, not later than December 1, 2027,
the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality shall develop
and implement the unified interagency data system required
under subsection (a)(1).
(c) Report.--Not less frequently than annually, the Chair of the
Council on Environmental Quality, in consultation with the Federal
Permitting Improvement Steering Council, the Chief Information Officers
Council, and other relevant stakeholders and Federal agencies, shall
submit to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of
the Senate a report on the Council on Environmental Quality's progress
on developing a unified interagency data system under subsection (a).
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section $1,000,000 for each of fiscal
years 2026 through 2032, to remain available until expended.
SEC. 8. AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS.
The Council on Environmental Quality may enter into contracts and
other arrangements for analyses, services, and products with Federal
agencies, private organizations, and businesses, and make such payments
as determined necessary by the Council on Environmental Quality to
carry out the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 9. CLARIFYING RULEMAKING AUTHORITY.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the Council on
Environmental Quality or a Federal agency to impose additional
regulatory processes or requirements beyond those expressly stipulated
under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et
seq.) or any other law.
SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Authorization.--The term ``authorization'' means any
license, permit, approval, finding, determination, or other
administrative decision issued by an agency and any interagency
consultation that is required or authorized under Federal law
in order to site, construct, reconstruct, or commence
operations of a project administered by a Federal agency.
(2) Authorization data.--The term ``authorization data''
means--
(A) any data relevant for a Federal agency to--
(i) determine the effect on the environment
of an action for which an authorization is
required by the Federal agency; and
(ii) determine whether to issue such
authorization; and
(B) any community input or public comment on such
determinations.
(3) Data architecture.--The term ``data architecture''
means the design and organization of data systems, including
frameworks for data storage, processing, and exchange.
(4) Data standards.--The term ``data standards'' means
agreed-upon specifications for data formats, structures, and
definitions to ensure consistency and interoperability.
(5) Environmental review.--The term ``environmental
review'' means any Federal agency procedures or processes for--
(A) applying a categorical exclusion; or
(B) preparing an environmental assessment, an
environmental impact statement, or another document
required under the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
(6) Federal agency.--The term ``Federal agency'' has the
meaning given the term ``agency'' in section 551 of title 5,
United States Code.
(7) Federal permitting improvement steering council.--The
term ``Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council'' has
the meaning given the term ``Council'' in section 41001 of the
FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m).
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