This piece originally appeared at Green Tape.
The reconciliation fight has been going gangbusters this week, and will likely be the biggest show in town for at least the next few months. Depending on whether permitting reform sneaks its way into the final package, I will either end up running an obnoxious victory lap or (much more likely) writing a truly despondent postmortem. Either way, there’s no question that the permitting reforms that can survive the upside-down bizarro land that is reconciliation are very different from those that we’d want to enact in regular order.
With this in mind, permitting reform advocates should keep an eye towards 2026, when the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (or more accurately, the surface transportation programs contained therein) will come up for reauthorization. These surface transportation reauthorizations are must-pass bills, and will thus provide the best opportunity for permitting reform this Congress.
To this end, I thought it might be useful to lay out all of the most significant permitting reforms that I’d like to see Congress enact.
Continue reading at Green Tape.
