Congress
Scalise: House GOP will pursue permitting reform this fall
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Wednesday that GOP leadership will work on advancing long-awaited permitting reform legislation this fall.
The current “approach” is a standalone bill that, ideally, would be the product of a bipartisan deal with Democrats, Scalise said in an interview.
“There is a lot of interest in getting that done and Democrats in the past, some have said, ‘We want to see permitting reform. Let’s give them that opportunity to help us get it done,” he said.
Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman and other Republicans are working on the issue, but it’s unclear if Democrats would strike an agreement with Republicans. Scalise said Republicans don’t have a timeline for getting the bill done, but that several committees are working on it now.
Major pieces of Republicans’ last permitting reform effort didn’t meet strict Senate rules to be included in Republicans’ megabill that Trump signed into law this month.