July 23, 2013

Dear Senators Portman and McCaskill:

On behalf of the CEO members of Business Roundtable, who lead major U.S. companies with more than $7.3 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 16 million employees, I write to express our support for your bill, the Federal Permitting Process Improvement Act of 2013.

Business Roundtable has consistently identified the federal permitting process as a barrier to economic recovery and job growth.  In April 2012, the Roundtable released Permitting Jobs and Business Investment: Streamlining the Federal Permitting Process, which proposes a set of reforms to simplify, streamline and accelerate that process and unlock private sector investment and the jobs associated with it.

Your bill would implement most of the major reforms that the Roundtable recommended, including requiring deadlines and schedules for permitting infrastructure projects and establishing lead agencies for categories of projects.  The bill would also codify and expand the important work that the Administration has done in this area, such as creating an Internet-based infrastructure project tracking dashboard.

We appreciate your leadership in introducing the bill and urge the Senate to pass it.

Sincerely,
Andrew N. Liveris
Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company
Chair, Select Committee on Smart Regulation, Business Roundtable