Floor Statement of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte Amendment Debate on Senate Amendments to H.R. 22, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2015 (DRIVE Act)

Chairman Goodlatte: Madam Chairwoman, I have an amendment at the desk. I and Regulatory Reform Subcommittee Chairman Marino (R-Pa.) offer this amendment to bridge the gap between two vital pieces of legislation:  Chairman Marino’s RAPID Act, (H.R. 348), which the House passed on September 24, 2015, and Senators Portman (R-Ohio) and McCaskill’s (D-Mo.) Federal Permitting Improvement Act, (S. 280). These bills have been companions for multiple terms in our effort to streamline the process by which federal agencies review and decide upon applications for federally funded and federally permitted construction projects.  Permit streamlining reform is essential to create new, high-paying jobs and strengthen our economy.  It is a priority of the House, the Senate and the President. S. 280 was incorporated by a floor amendment into the Senate amendments to (H.R. 22), and so is included in the base bill before us.  In two of three key respects, it substantially achieves the House goals embodied by the RAPID Act—to shorten the time it takes to conclude litigation over federal permitting decisions, and to require litigants first to present the substance of any claims before permitting agencies during their administrative reviews. The Senate text, however, falls short in the third key respect—reliably expediting the time agencies have to conclude their reviews before acting to approve or disapprove permits.  The Senate language includes many important steps toward this goal, but multiple loopholes in the language open the door for agencies to extend administrative deadlines without end, and without standards. The amendment Subcommittee Chairman Marino and I offer fixes this problem by establishing firm checks-and-balances through which the Director of OMB and the Executive Director of the Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council can prevent abusive extensions and assure that permit applications are reviewed within reasonable deadlines. The amendment embodies a “pre-conferenced” resolution of the differences between the RAPID Act and S.280 as incorporated into H.R. 22 that Subcommittee Chairman Marino, I, Senator Portman, and Senator McCaskill all support. If the House adopts this amendment, it will perfect the bill to assure powerful permit streamlining reform, paving the way for good projects to move forward more quickly, delivering high-quality jobs and improvements to Americans’ daily lives. I urge all Members to support the amendment and reserve the balance of my time.