6/25/2024
Washington D.C. — Official Release: Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-05) and Celeste Maloy (UT-02) have introduced the Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act, which would streamline the federal permitting process by instituting a ‘permit-by-rule’ (PBR) system.
“The permitting process is often burdensome and costly, resulting in project delays that hinder economic growth and development. I’m proud to join Congresswoman Maloy in introducing the FREE Act, which would cut through unnecessary red tape by implementing a streamlined permitting process. This is a commonsense proposal that would provide predictability to businesses and speed up domestic projects, helping reduce our reliance on adversarial countries like China,” Chavez-DeRemer said.
“A large portion of my career has been spent helping Utahns work through burdensome federal permitting processes,” said Maloy. “Permit applications are often inconsistent and lack clear timelines. The FREE Act offers some long overdue relief, streamlining permits to make them more manageable and predictable. Utah businesses and local governments will benefit from this improvement.”
The FREE Act directs federal agencies to evaluate their permits and report to Congress within 240 days with an assessment of whether permit-by-rule can replace their current systems or make a thorough justification otherwise. Agencies must then adopt PBR within 12 months for the eligible permits. Under permit-by-rule, agencies must grant all permit applications that meet objective permit standards within 30 days. Agencies can still deny applicants who do not meet requirements and may verify compliance.
Additional cosponsors of the proposal include House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) and Reps. Dan Newhouse (WA-04), Pete Stauber (MN-08), Mary Peltola (AK-At-Large), Jake LaTurner (KS-02), August Pfluger (TX-11), Vince Fong (CA-20), John Curtis (UT-03), Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Blake Moore (UT-01), Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), and Ryan Zinke (MT-01).
Full text of the legislation can be found HERE. A summary can be found HERE.
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