Business Roundtable Releases Report on Modernizing Outdated Permitting System, Calls for Comprehensive Bipartisan Reform

Washington - Business Roundtable today released “Building a Prosperous Future,” a report on the urgent need to modernize America’s outdated federal permitting system for major infrastructure projects. The report details the economic harm caused by unnecessary permitting delays, highlights recent progress through legislation and executive action, and offers a comprehensive set of reforms to accelerate project approvals across energy, transportation, technology and other critical sectors.

“The biggest lever to unlock America’s economic potential is modernizing our permitting process,” said Brendan Bechtel, Chairman and CEO of Bechtel and Chair of the Business Roundtable Smart Regulation Committee. “From delivering clean energy and AI data centers to meeting the President’s goal of ten new nuclear reactors by 2030, the United States cannot afford to let projects sit idle for years. The policies in this report would help break the logjam and unleash investment, innovation and job creation across every sector.”

“If we want to compete and win in the coming decades, America needs a permitting process that moves at the pace of our ambitions,” said Joshua Bolten, CEO of Business Roundtable. “Congress and the Administration have made meaningful progress on this vital issue, and now is the time to finish the job by enacting bipartisan permitting reform legislation. Without the comprehensive, durable improvements outlined in this report, the United States will continue to leave trillions in investment on the sidelines.”

Problems with America’s current permitting system:

• Cumbersome and time-consuming – The federal permitting process takes four to five years on average, with some projects delayed further by litigation long after agency approval.
• Costly to communities and the economy – An estimated $1.5 trillion in investment is currently awaiting federal permits, while the unrealized induced GDP impact of infrastructure projects now in federal review totals approximately $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion.
• Fragmented and redundant – Multiple overlapping reviews across agencies and jurisdictions create unnecessary duplication and delay.
• Vulnerable to legal gridlock – Lengthy litigation timelines leave projects in limbo, undermining environmental review certainty and economic planning.

Policy recommendations to build on recent meaningful permitting reforms:

• Improve and focus environmental reviews – Limit National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews to impacts not already under another agency’s jurisdiction, require agencies to make permitting decisions within 90 days of issuing a final Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assessments and expand categorical exclusions.
• Reform the NEPA litigation process – Specify a statute of limitations of no more than 150 days, expedite case schedules and limit injunctions that block construction after procedural compliance.
• Increase domestic energy production and export – Accelerate permitting for all energy resources, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities, pipelines and carbon capture infrastructure.
• Expand and improve transmission capabilities and capacity – Improve the speed of the interconnection queue process and support regional and interregional transmission planning.
• Ensure secure supply chains – Facilitate responsible domestic mining, processing and recycling of critical minerals essential to semiconductors, defense and advanced manufacturing.
• Modernize digital and AI infrastructure approvals – Codify NEPA categorical exclusions for new and existing facilities, allow a mutual recognition permitting approval process for federal, state and local applications, and require permitting authorities to establish a single point of contact.

Read the full report here: “Building a Prosperous Future.“