Expand Use of the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard (US0063)

In September 2015, the Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality issued guidance directing the 11 Federal agencies that play a significant role in permitting, review, funding and development of large-scale infrastructure projects to begin developing coordinated project review schedules and posting them publicly on the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard by 2016. Expanding use of the
Dashboard to infrastructure projects involving complex permitting processes and significant environmental effects will improve communication with project applicants and sponsors, increase interagency coordination, and increase the transparency and accountability of the Federal permitting and environmental review process.

For details of these commitments, see the report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/united-states-mid-term-report-2015-2017/

Commitment 11. Expand Use of the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard

Commitment Text:

Expand Use of the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard

In September 2015, the Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality issued guidance directing the 11 Federal agencies that play a significant role in the permitting, review, funding, and development of large-scale infrastructure projects to begin developing coordinated project review schedules and posting them publicly on the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard by 2016. Expanding use of the Dashboard to infrastructure projects involving complex permitting processes and significant environmental effects will improve communication with project applicants and sponsors, increase interagency coordination, and increase the transparency and accountability of the Federal permitting and environmental review process.

Responsible Institutions: Council for Environmental Quality, Office of Management and Budget, Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council

Supporting Institutions: Federal agencies that play a significant role in the permitting, review, funding, and development of large-scale infrastructure projects

Start Date: Not Specified ....... End Date: Not Specified

Commitment Aim

This commitment aimed to improve the transparency of the federal permitting process for large-scale infrastructure projects. It included 11 federal agencies that are involved in the permitting, review, funding, and development of such projects. The commitment required the agencies to develop and post coordinated project review schedules on the Permitting Dashboard for federal infrastructure projects. [125] In doing so, the government aimed to improve communication with applicants and across agencies. It also anticipated increasing transparency surrounding permitting and environmental impact review processes.

Status

Midterm: Limited

At the midterm, the government had made limited progress on this commitment. Congress passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act [126] in December 2015. Under Title 41, the act requires the federal government to use the Permitting Dashboard to track infrastructure project timelines. It also establishes a Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC). [127] An interagency team responsible for these aspects of the act’s implementation prepared a list of infrastructure projects to be added to the dashboard between April and June 2016. The team nominated an FPISC executive director. [128] However, by the close of the midterm reporting period, the government had not yet confirmed the FPISC executive director. This director would ultimately be responsible for approving use of the Permitting Dashboard to track infrastructure projects. Thus, there was no further progress on this front at the midterm. [129]

End of Term: Complete

In July 2016, President Obama appointed Richard Kidd, IV as executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Committee (FPISC). [130] Several months later, on 22 September 2016, the FPISC released a list of 34 “covered projects,” referred to as the “covered project inventory.” The list comprised projects that are subject to the requirements of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act’s Title 41 (FAST-41). [131] The official FPISC memorandum announcing the covered project inventory required the lead agency for each project to develop a coordinated project plan. The plans also had to be uploaded to the Permitting Dashboard by 29 November 2016. [132] As of September 2017, the dashboard contained coordinated project plans for 35 FAST-41 projects. [133] Each project’s timeline includes a list of particular actions to be completed (such as obtaining right-of-way authorization and issuing safety reports and environmental impact statements). The timelines also list target and actual completion dates for each action. The commitment is therefore complete.

Richard Kidd left the post of executive director in January 2017, once President Trump took office. [134] Per the FPISC website, the position remains unfilled as of September 2017, [135] raising the possibility of future delays in posting covered projects to the dashboard.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

This commitment marginally opened government with respect to access to information by improving public access to development and completion timelines for infrastructure projects. The main benefit of the new Permitting Dashboard is that government agencies, project sponsors, and members of the public can now track the status of major infrastructure projects. Users of the dashboard can monitor progress on predefined milestones, including consultations, authorizations, and environmental impact assessments. For example, the dashboard includes information on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a restoration project to address land loss in Louisiana. According to Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of national and local conservation groups working on this issue, “The Project’s placement on the Federal Permitting Dashboard is equally important to ensuring accountability and transparency.” [136]

Still, there are important limitations. First, the overall number of infrastructure projects listed on the dashboard is modest (35 as of September 2017). Second, as legal analysts have noted, [137] the information on the dashboard is not very useful for monitoring delays. For example, many project milestones lack clear target dates. In addition, both projects and milestones are labeled as “Cancelled,” “Planned,” “In Progress,” or “Complete,” which does not indicate if there are delays. To illustrate, as of February 2016, more than half of the projects were considered to be “In Progress,” despite having deadlines in 2014 and 2015. [138] For this commitment to achieve a major change in government openness, the dashboard information needs to cover a wider range of projects and better illustrate progress during the permitting process.

Carried Forward?

At the time of writing, the US government had not published its fourth national action plan, so it is unclear if this commitment will be carried forward.

While this commitment has opened government with respect to access to information, the actions taken do not automatically translate into a timelier permitting process. This remains a pressing issue. A 2016 report prepared by the National Association of Environmental Professionals indicates that the average time to prepare an environmental impact statement (from notice of intent to final version) was 5.1 years. The association based the finding on an analysis of 177 environmental impact statements issued in 2016. [139] The government could therefore direct future efforts toward identifying and eliminating unnecessary inefficiencies and delays in the federal permitting process, while preserving environmental and other safeguards. As a result, these and other review processes could proceed more quickly to generate infrastructure investment.

As for the dashboard itself, the government could improve the quality of the information published. The government could incorporate into the dashboard the new accountability mechanisms proposed in President Trump’s Executive Order 13807 on improving the permitting process (issued on 15 August 2017). [140] These mechanisms include assessing whether major infrastructure projects have clear timelines and identifying the time it takes to complete environmental reviews and authorizations. They also include producing scorecards that grade agencies on their timeliness and performance. The government could also establish dynamic reporting and visualizations on the dashboard, as planned, [141] to make information easier to understand. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a civil society organization in Washington, D.C., agrees that the government could make greater use of the dashboard to monitor infrastructure projects. [142] It also noted that the government could implement the new transparency and accountability measures proposed in Executive Order 13807, such as the performance scoring system, mandatory explanations for agency delays, cost estimates, and assessments of inefficiencies in the permitting process. [143]

[125] Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/, consulted 3 October 2017.

[126] “FAST-41L Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act,” Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/about/fast-41, consulted 3 October 2017. For the text of the act, see https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-114publ94/pdf/PLAW-114publ94.pdf, consulted 3 October 2017.

[127] Ibid.

[128] This information was previously available in the FY2016 Q2 progress update for the Infrastructure Permitting Modernization project, available here: http://bit.ly/2qwx876. The IRM consulted this website in October 2017. However, the link is now broken and cannot be accessed through the archived website, available at http://bit.ly/2COUnwS.

[129] Similar to note 4 above, this information was available in the FY2016 Q4 progress update, which included a milestone spreadsheet with many items moved to the 2017 calendar year. In October 2017, the IRM consulted this website at http://bit.ly/2FoqyF2. However, the link is now broken and cannot be accessed through the archived website, available at http://bit.ly/2COUnwS.

[130] Mark Niquette, “Trump Repackages Council as ‘New' in Infrastructure Plan,” Bloomberg, 9 June 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-09/trump-wants-new-council-to-help-speed-up-public-works-projects, consulted 10 September 2017.

[131] “FPISC Announces FAST-41 Covered Projects,” Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/about/news/fpisc-announces-fast-41-covered-projects, consulted 10 September 2017. For a more detailed discussion of the criteria used to determine which projects are covered, see Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, FAST-41: FY16 Annual Report to Congress, April 2017, 1, https://www.permits.performance.gov/sites/permits.performance.gov/files/docs/FAST-41%20FY%202016%20Annual%20Report%20to%20Congress%204.15.17.pdf, consulted 27 September 2017.

[132] Richard Kidd IV, Memorandum for the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), 22 September 2016, https://www.permits.performance.gov/sites/permits.performance.gov/files/docs/1st%20FPISC%20External%20Action%20-%20Signed%20Covered%20Project%20Memo.pdf, consulted 10 September 2017.

[133] “Projects,” Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/projects, consulted 10 September 2017.

[134] LinkedIn, “Richard Kidd, IV,” https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-g-kidd-iv-0a693275, consulted 10 September 2017.

[135] “Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) Leadership,” Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/about/federal-permitting-improvement-steering-council-fpisc-leadership, consulted 10 September 2017.

[136] “State, Federal Partnership Critical to Advancing Large-Scale Louisiana Coastal Restoration Project,” Environmental Defense Fund, 26 January 2018, http://bit.ly/2GawTUb.

[137] Thomas C. Jensen, Sandra A. Snodgrass, and Matthew Castelli, “Infrastructure Permit Streamlining under the FAST Act,” Holland & Hart, http://bit.ly/2Gcmp6U.

[138] Ibid.

[139] “NAEP Annual National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Report for 2016: Summary,” National Association of Environmental Professionals, http://www.naep.org/, consulted 27 September 2017. The current issue of the report is available only to association members and federal agency liaisons of the association, and is therefore not cited directly here.

[140] “Presidential Executive Order on Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure,” White House, 15 August 2017, http://bit.ly/2F6MGnQ.

[141] Before the Senate Comm. on Energy and Natural Resources (12 December 2017) (testimony of Janet Pfleeger), https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/01/31/document_gw_07.pdf.

[142] Andy Winkler, “How the Trump Administration Can Accelerate Permitting Now,” Bipartisan Policy Center, 4 April 2017, http://bit.ly/2C0eyeC.

[143] Andy Winkler, “Accelerating Federal Permitting and Environmental Review,” Bipartisan Policy Center, 1 February 2018, http://bit.ly/2Coeilb.