Congresswoman Hageman Releases Statement on SPEED Act Advancing Through Committee
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources advanced the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development(SPEED) Act to the full House for a vote. The bipartisan legislation, led by Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), that Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY) is a cosponsor of, modernizes and streamlines the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to eliminate needless delays, reduce litigation abuse, and provide long-overdue permitting certainty for energy, infrastructure, and economic development projects across the country. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman released the following statement.
“Wyoming powers America, and today’s markup was another important step toward ensuring that federal permitting policy keeps pace with our nation’s energy and infrastructure needs, rather than standing in the way of them,” said Rep. Hageman. “For far too long, radical environmentalists and bureaucratic red tape have manipulated NEPA to stall critical projects for years, sometimes decades. The SPEED Act brings clarity, certainty, common sense, and fairness back to the permitting process.”
The Wyoming Chamber of Commerce and the Wyoming Mining Association expressed strong support for the SPEED Act.
Key provisions of the SPEED Act include:
Clear timelines for environmental reviews, ending open-ended analysis that delays major projects.
Limits on the scope of NEPA reviews, ensuring agencies evaluate only environmental effects with a direct causal relationship to the proposed action.
Judicial review reforms, including a 150-day deadline for filing claims and the elimination of injunction and vacatur as remedies, reducing frivolous litigation designed to halt projects.
Allowance for state, Tribal, and previously completed NEPA documents to satisfy federal requirements, reducing duplication and reinforcing Tribal sovereignty.
Early engagement requirements to ensure federal, state, local, and Tribal governments collaborate from the start, improving efficiency and transparency.
Process certainty for project applicants, including firm deadlines for agencies to determine application completeness and issue final decisions.
###