WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jason Smith’s (R-MO) amendment to speed up infrastructure projects, while also reducing costs, was blocked by Speaker Pelosi from being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, Smith’s amendment would have prevented federal agencies from performing redundant environmental assessments that cause massive project delays. Currently, there are multiple agencies that go through their own burdensome approval processes only to achieve the same results.
Smith spoke about how his commonsense solution would have helped to expedite and reform the broken process that slows critical infrastructure projects.
“Federal support for infrastructure has always been a bipartisan venture,” said Congressman Smith. “It’s outrageous that Speaker Pelosi would block the full U.S. House of Representatives from considering my amendment to help speed up infrastructure projects and save the taxpayers more of their hard-earned dollars.”
“My solution is simple,” continued Smith. “If one government agency says there will be no harm to the environment, then that is good enough for the other agencies. The current review process is so broken and intrusive that it would take longer today to build the Hoover Dam than when it was built in the 1930s. Americans today deserve infrastructure that’s built better and quicker than it was 90 years ago, not worse.”
The burdensome approval process Congressman Smith mentioned is a result of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), enacted in 1970, to identify and evaluate the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects. As Smith said, these reviews take a considerable amount of time. A report complied in December 2018 notes that 60 percent of all environmental reviews for federal highway projects between 2010 and 2017 took more than six years to complete. That is a full year longer than the Hoover Dam took to build between the years 1931 and 1936.
These time-consuming environmental assessments have also understandably drawn the ire of President Donald Trump. Smith’s amendment would go a long way to help make the changes being sought by the President and his administration. In January, during a ceremony at the White House, President Trump announced his administration would be modernizing the NEPA regulations for the first time in nearly half a century. Specifically, the President’s proposed changes include instituting time restrictions on these assessments to accelerate the process and clarifying the terms and directives to reduce duplicative efforts.
“We want to build new roads, bridges, tunnels, highways bigger, better, faster,” President Trump said at the White House press conference in January. Adding, “these endless delays waste money, keep projects from breaking ground and deny jobs to our nation’s incredible workers.”
Despite Republican opposition, Speaker Pelosi, with the help of her proxy voting scheme, was able to pass the bill: H.R. 2. Congressman Smith says even without his amendment, the bill did little to help southern Missouri receive the infrastructure improvements they need.
“Instead of working together to advance badly needed infrastructure improvements to towns and cities across our country, Speaker Pelosi unilaterally passed a terribly partisan bill,” said Congressman Smith. “Her massive bill will not only cost the American taxpayers $1.5 trillion but takes away flexibility from state and local governments and creates mandates that will obstruct local communities’ infrastructure priorities. It’s a sad day for our country when the Speaker of the House continues to play politics and hold back American infrastructure innovation.”
The bill now heads to the United States Senate where it is unlikely to pass the chamber.
###
