Let America Build

OPINION:

Now is the time to let America build, and the only way we do that is by returning certainty and clarity to the federal permitting process.

The broken federal permitting process is costing American manufacturers more than $7.9 billion annually, preventing critical infrastructure and energy projects from being built and increasing project costs across every industry. According to the same report by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Foundation for American Innovation titled “America on Hold,” 87% of manufacturers said they would expand operations, hire more workers or increase wages and benefits if the permitting process were more streamlined. These facts are a warning sign with dangerous implications for the future of our economy and a threat to our nation’s continued ability to build, innovate and prosper.

It’s not just manufacturers and industry paying the price and feeling the burden. According to the National Association of Home Builders, permitting regulations at all levels of government account for almost 24% of the final price of a new single-family home. At the time of the study, that was $93,870 of the final house price. Federal permitting reform can provide meaningful cost reductions that allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned dollars, lower their cost of living and invest in their family’s future.

The costs of our broken permitting process are embedded in every facet of American life, not just housing. From roads and pipelines to mines and airports, to the energy needed to light, heat and cool our homes, permitting bureaucracy raises the cost of living in America.

Reforming federal permitting processes will reduce the costs of building, manufacturing and transporting nearly everything in our economy. Permitting reform will help Americans spend less time on bureaucratic paperwork and more time building, innovating and maintaining the United States’ global leadership across sectors. American industries are prepared to start projects and create jobs in every state; to proceed, they need a streamlined permitting process that provides certainty.

This is why I partnered with Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, to lead the passage of the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act out of the House of Representatives on a bipartisan vote and with the support of more than 400 diverse stakeholders from across the country. This bill will create certainty in the federal permitting process and spur American investment in critical infrastructure, energy and industry. In short, the SPEED Act will let America build.

With some NEPA documents topping 1,000 pages, duplicative analysis and the constant risk of litigation are roadblocks to critical infrastructure projects. The SPEED Act limits the scope of federal permitting reviews and clarifies when a review must be done. Current roadblocks increase project costs, disincentivize investment, kill American economic completion and drag out project completion. According to a McKinsey and Company report titled “Unlocking US Federal Permitting: A Sustainable Growth Imperative,” reducing the federal permitting timeline by even a single year would generate at least $22 billion in returns on invested capital for projects seeking approvals, putting money back into the economy to hire more workers and build more facilities in the United States. Building more in America, manufacturing more in America and increasing opportunities to buy and export more American products will create new economic opportunities and reduce the cost of living for hard-working Americans.

Now is the time to make this a reality. It’s time for the Senate to pass permitting reform to return certainty and clarity to the process and lower costs for hard-working Americans. This broken process is not beyond fixing, but changes must be made now. America’s ability to build, innovate and prosper depends on it.

• Rep. Bruce Westerman represents Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and as chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources.