WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump announced an executive order Tuesday that's designed to streamline the approval process for building roads, bridges and other infrastructure by establishing "one federal decision" for major projects and setting a two-year goal for permitting.
The order will create accountability and discipline for the permitting process and will not require a change in law, a person familiar with the matter said. The process can sometimes involve approvals by multiple agencies and duplicative reviews, officials have said.
"This over-regulated permitting process is a massive self-inflicted wound on our country," Trump said. "It's disgraceful."
Among other things, the president's order will rescind a previous decree signed by former President Barack Obama that required federal agencies to account for flood risk and climate change when paying for roads, bridges or other structures. Trump has suggested that the predicted risks from sea level rise are overblown.
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 200 days]
The order also allows the Office of Management and Budget to establish goals for environmental reviews and permitting of infrastructure projects, and then track their progress -- with "automatic elevation to senior agency officials upon missing or extending a milestone," according to the Department of Transportation. The order also establishes an interagency working group to identify and remove impediments in regulations and environmental permitting policies.
Critics say there's danger in streamlining the reviews.
"This is yet another outrageous example of Trump's insistence on putting corporate interests ahead of people's health and safety," said Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director with the League of Conservation Voters, a political advocacy group.
Trump said in announcing the order that if projects are deemed to create environmental problems, they won't be approved.
The president Tuesday took part in an infrastructure discussion during his visit to Trump Tower in New York City, joined by officials including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council.
Because the federal government owns less than 10 percent of U.S. infrastructure, the Trump administration has focused on efforts to accelerate environmental reviews and permitting for projects that can take years and create unpredictability for investors.
Chao said Tuesday that it can take decades to get a few miles of highway or a bridge built because projects can be subject to as many as 65 requirements and permits.
"For far too long, critical projects have been delayed by duplicative permitting and environmental requirements which added time and unnecessary expenses to much needed projects," Chao said in a statement.
Tuesday's order revokes one Obama signed in January 2015, requiring federal agencies to account for future flood risk when spending money on infrastructure projects, a restriction that would extend to homes with federally backed mortgages, as well. That order, which was still being implemented through regulations, would have caused some federal projects to be moved to different areas, built to higher standards or canceled altogether.
The person familiar with the plan said rolling back that provision won't prohibit state and local agencies from using more stringent standards if they choose.
Opponents of Obama's order, including the National Association of Home Builders, had argued that by requiring homes in flood plains to be built higher than before, construction costs would rise. Supporters, such as insurers and consumer-safety advocates, said the requirement would protect lives and reduce federal spending after floods and other natural disasters.
A recent draft of a report from scientists representing 13 federal agencies say sea levels along U.S. coastlines could rise by more than a foot on average by 2050, potentially more in the Northeast and western Gulf of Mexico.
"What this order will do is ensure that we will waste more taxpayer money because federal agencies will no longer have to consider long-term flood risks to federally funded infrastructure projects," said Jessica Grannis, who manages the adaptation program at the Georgetown Climate Center.
The Trump administration has said it plans to release a legislative package by this fall to meet the president's pledge to invest $1 trillion to upgrade U.S. infrastructure. The White House signaled that it wants to allocate $200 billion in federal dollars over 10 years to pay for large-scale and rural projects, and to induce states, localities and the private sector to spend $800 billion.
Trump approved an earlier executive order four days after taking office to expedite environmental reviews and approvals for high-priority infrastructure projects, and White House officials in March convened a working group of federal agencies to identify policies, regulations and statutes that hinder project approvals.
"We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world. And today we're like a third-world country," Trump said Tuesday, using a term referring to the economically developing nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The president also announced on June 9 during the White House's "infrastructure week" that he was creating a council that already exists, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council. It was authorized by Congress in 2015 and implemented by Obama. The council is not meeting its potential, the White House said at the time.
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Niquette and Christopher Flavelle of Bloomberg News; and by Joan Lowy and Michael Biesecker of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/16/2017