CBO Suggests Congress Waive NEPA To Speed Stimulus Spending
Inside EPA
01/30/2009
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report lists waiving environmental reviews as the top way to speed infrastructure spending in the stimulus bill winding its way through Congress.
The Jan. 29 report, requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), lists ways that infrastructure money in the stimulus could be “accelerated,” a key goal of President Obama and other policymakers seeking to maximize the bill's job-creation benefits.
A list of “possibilities for accelerating spending in infrastructure and other grant programs” includes “Waiving requirements for environmental and judicial reviews” at the top of its list.
The recommendations are unlikely to please environmentalists, who have already resisted calls by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to waive environmental review requirements for transportation projects that receive funding from the stimulus.
Congress has often waived environmental reviews, such as those required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as they did for construction following the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes and in other cases.
Republicans and others have long sought to streamline such requirements, arguing they unduly delay projects and promote litigation. Recently, environmentalists have contemplated revisions to NEPA for “smart growth” transportation projects and electricity transmission lines to facilitate renewable energy development.
So far, however, Congress has not been willing to waive NEPA requirements for stimulus spending. The House Rules Committee Jan. 27 blocked floor consideration of two amendments to the stimulus package that sought to waive NEPA requirements.
Despite their recommendation to waive review requirements, CBO also cautions that “Undue speed could result in: errors in planning, design, or contracting that might result in poor performance, legal challenges, or increased project costs; unanticipated environmental impacts; or the undertaking of projects that are of little value but that can be started up quickly.”
CBO also notes that it “has not analyzed the various programs in detail in order to identify the specific steps that might be taken in each case to speed up spending.”
