Davis Supports Highway Bill Amendments to Speed Up Infrastructure Project Review and Permitting, Adopt Buy America Requirements, Support Law Enforcement, and on Other Policies

Press Release

During the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's highway bill markup yesterday and early this morning, U.S. Representative Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) spoke in support of several amendments to the highway bill, including:

Streamlining and speeding up infrastructure project review and permitting process

Rep. Davis's amendment, modeled after his One Federal Decision Act, provides critical regulatory reform by codifying a Trump Administration Executive Order, which President Biden rescinded, that streamlines the environmental review and permitting process for major infrastructure projects.

In the United States, a complex highway project takes an average of 7 years just to clear the federal government's cumbersome review process, while some approvals drag on for much longer. Large projects often take a decade or more.

This amendment makes sensible reforms to important federal environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects by setting a government-wide goal of limiting the time required for environmental reviews and authorizations for major infrastructure projects to two years, beginning with publication of a notice of intent to prepare an EIS through the issuance of a record of decision (ROD) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The amendment also requires federal agencies to develop single timetables and environmental documents for permitting and review and also requires federal agencies to make all project authorization decisions within 90 days of issuance of an ROD.

A diverse group of stakeholders, including business and labor groups, support this reform.

Adopting Buy America requirements for federally-funded transit agencies

The House Democrats' highway bill contains Buy America provisions that prohibit transit agencies from doing business with Chinese state-owned entities. However, it does not close all loopholes that would permit some transit authorities to continue to do business with China, including Washington, DC's Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). This amendment, introduced by Rep. Babin, closes a loophole to ensure that all transit agencies receiving federal funds adhere to Buy America Act requirements.

Chinese-state owned enterprises (SOEs) are looking to make investments in American infrastructure and are making significant inroads into American transit systems. It is essential for Congress to ensure that taxpayer dollars don't unintentionally support the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Regime by funding these state-owned businesses. This amendment ensures that our infrastructure investments will support American workers and their families -- not China.

Preventing jurisdictions that have defunded their police from using federal dollars to backfill their law enforcement budgets

This amendment, introduced by Rep. Nehls, prohibits jurisdictions that have defunded the police from using National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) program grants to fund traffic enforcement activities performed by law enforcement officers on our Nation's roadways. It ensures the federal government is not bailing out local jurisdictions that choose to defund the police by closing a loophole that would allow them to backfill their budgets.

Preventing use of Chinese rare earth minerals and advancing domestic mineral mining efforts

This amendment, introduced by Rep. Stauber, applies Buy America Act requirements to critical minerals and ensures U.S. dollars do not support Chinese human rights violations. It also provides targeted environmental review streamlining for critical mineral mining in U.S. and establishes a task force on developing domestic supply of critical minerals and their safe transportation.

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