Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-Mo.), and U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) released the following joint statement regarding the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposal to roll back recent reforms cutting red tape in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process:

“The Biden administration’s plans to scale back critical NEPA reforms made by the previous administration will set back efforts to improve America’s infrastructure and manage our nation’s public lands and waters. Modernizing the overly lengthy and costly NEPA process is long overdue, and Republicans have offered legislation to do that without hurting the environment through the BUILDER Act. Unfortunately, CEQ’s actions move us in the wrong direction by proposing a rule that will create more infrastructure project delays, exacerbate catastrophic wildfires, prevent the responsible stewardship of America’s natural resources, impose burdensome regulations on job creators and throw up new obstacles to improvements that would have positive impacts for our environment. We strongly encourage CEQ to reconsider this proposal.”

The BUILDER Act (H.R. 2515) is legislation introduced on April 14, 2021, by Rep. Garret Graves and cosponsored by Ranking Members Bruce Westerman and Sam Graves, and other House Republican and Committee leaders. The BUILDER Act would modernize the outdated NEPA to make infrastructure project reviews more efficient, reduce project costs, spur economic recovery and rebuild America.