Permitting reform included in debt ceiling deal will benefit North Dakota, Armstrong says

WASHINGTON – Policy included in the proposed debt ceiling deal to streamline permitting for infrastructure projects is good news for energy producing states like North Dakota, says U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-North Dakota.

“It’s going to help get infrastructure in the ground in a quicker time and thereby free up capital for infrastructure projects,” Armstrong said.

On Sunday, May 28,

President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker McCarthy

signed off on the

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,

which, if approved by Congress, temporarily suspends the debt ceiling and cuts back on some federal spending to prevent a U.S. debt default. The bill was

advanced by the House Rules Committee,

sending it to a House vote on Wednesday, May 31.

The deal would suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, and includes a cap on non-defense discretionary spending at $1.64 trillion for fiscal year 2023. Defense spending gets a 3% increase from $858 billion to $886 billion.

The bill also amends the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law requiring federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of projects before making decisions. The proposed amendment would designate a single lead federal agency to supervise environmental reviews on infrastructure projects.

White House officials say the changes will improve government efficiency and accelerate construction projects across the country, especially projects building out clean energy infrastructure funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

Armstrong says the proposed amendment aims to codify

changes to regulations implemented by former President Donald Trump

in 2020 to expedite permitting for environmental projects. In 2022, Biden restored protections removed by Trump.

One of Trump’s changes that is now included in the debt ceiling deal is time limits for environmental reviews. It sets deadlines of one year for issuing environmental impact assessments for projects and two years for issuing environmental impact statements.

“One of the things that worked so well under the Trump administration, I call them shot clocks, because there was a finite amount of time in which the federal government could do those things,” Armstrong said.

He expects the changes to make projects building infrastructure to transport North Dakota’s oil and natural gas move faster.

“We are an energy producing state and we’re the geographic center of North America,” Armstrong said, necessitating the need for infrastructure to “move our product out of state.”

However, some are opposed to the proposed amendments to NEPA. In a statement, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Arizona, House Natural Resources Committee ranking member, said the provisions roll back key protections of environmental and public health laws.

“There is no room for compromise when it comes to our bedrock environmental laws, especially for communities that have been systematically targeted by polluters for decades,” Grijalva said. “NEPA is these communities’ strongest — and often their only — tool when it comes to protecting themselves against industry wrongdoing. Rather than strengthen that tool, this bill gives polluters a shield, inevitably worsening an already unacceptable status quo.”

Other provisions in the deal end the pause on student loan repayments, take back unused COVID relief funds, cut some IRS funding and impose new work requirements on some low-income people who receive assistance under SNAP and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.

During a press briefing on Sunday, Biden said the budget agreement is an important step forward and takes the threat of default off the table.

“And the agreement also represents a compromise, which means no one got everything they want,” Biden said. “But that’s the responsibility of governing.”

Armstrong does not think the proposed deal goes far enough for a country with $32 trillion in debt, but called the policy and spending reforms that did make it into the bill “significant.”

“We’re limited in what we can do,” Armstrong said. “We still have to deal with bigger structural changes, but in the realm of this, it avoids downgrade and default, which is important to North Dakota business, particularly in the ag and energy sector.”

Congress has a June 5 deadline to approve the deal to avoid default.