Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Relating to ``Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status with Section 4(D) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment''

Floor Speech

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Ms. LUMMIS. Madam President, our Federal permitting process is broken.

Back home in Wyoming, important infrastructure and energy projects are oftentimes delayed years due to mountains of regulation, redtape, bureaucracy, and even lawsuits. This is absolutely unacceptable. It is impossible for small businesses to even get off the ground thanks to these hurdles.

It is time to reform our Federal permitting process, and I am glad some of my colleagues from across the aisle are coming around to the idea of permitting reform. Some on the left are finally warming up to reform to try to push renewable energy projects.

Permitting reform needs to address all types of energy technologies, fuel, and projects. For that reason, any bipartisan effort needs to actually address the underlying statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA; the Endangered Species Act; the Clean Water Act; and the Clean Air Act. Window dressing will no longer do.

Since NEPA is the single most litigated environmental statute, litigation reform needs to be part of the final product. Litigation reflects something is broken; that it is not working well. Some would have you believe otherwise. Litigation is the result of something is not working well. The average time for NEPA processes is 4\1/2\ years-- nearly half a decade.

We also need to think about the processes and projects that have never been started because of these challenges. The costs of getting NEPA and getting an environmental impact statement are so high and take so long that some projects are never undertaken.

I have a friend in Wyoming who has been trying for over 10 years to get through the NEPA process to open a rare earth minerals mine so as to mine rare earth minerals we desperately need in this country so that we don't have to rely on places like China and the Republic of the Congo. But this man is going to retire because he is ready to retire, and this process is still ongoing. All that time, all that money, all that energy is being reduced to nothing because a process has taken the place of mining the rare earth minerals we desperately need in this country.

I applaud Senator Shelley Moore Capito's leadership in addressing meaningful permitting reform. Her legislation will provide regulatory certainty to States and stakeholders, codify environmental regulatory reforms, and expedite permitting and review processes.

I am especially excited about the idea of allowing States to take on more of the shared workload when it comes to permitting, particularly under the Endangered Species Act.

I look forward to the Senate taking up this bill and providing much- needed permitting reform.

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