Sec. 401. Project delivery rulemaking
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Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall begin a rulemaking to govern the Federal review, permitting, and approval or disapproval of— freight railroad and intercity rail passenger transportation infrastructure projects, including those that are carried out or planned to be carried out with the use of Federal funds administered by the Department of Transportation through a grant, contract, loan, or other financing instrument; and commuter rail passenger transportation (as defined in section 24102(3) of title 49, United States Code) infrastructure projects that are funded in whole or in part through a direct loan or loan guarantee under title V of the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 ( 45 U.S.C. 801 et seq. ).
The Secretary shall complete the rulemaking required under subsection
(a)not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act. The rulemaking under subsection
(a)shall include procedures that— reduce the aggregate time for review and permitting of infrastructure projects described under subsection
(a)while preserving existing statutory requirements for public comment or assessing the impact of a proposed project; institutionalize or expand best practices or process improvements that agencies are already implementing to improve the efficiency of reviews; identify high-performance attributes of infrastructure projects described under subsection
(a)that demonstrate how projects seek to advance existing statutory and policy objectives, thereby facilitating a more efficient review and permitting process; create a process to invite Federal agencies and State, local, and tribal governments to participate in the review process, expand coordination with such agencies and governments, and require the identification as early as practicable in the process of any— Federal agency or State, local, or tribal government with jurisdiction over the project or required by law to conduct or issue a review or make a determination with regard to the project; and review, analysis, opinion, and permit, license, or approval required for the project; create process efficiencies, including— designating Federal agencies and State, local, and tribal governments as cooperating and participating agencies; conducting concurrent and integrated reviews, analyses, opinions, and permits, licenses, or approvals to the maximum extent practicable; establishing timelines, in coordination with affected Federal agencies, for completion of those reviews, analyses, opinions, and permits, licenses, or approvals; developing a coordination plan and schedule, in coordination with affected Federal agencies, for participation in the review by Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal governments, and the public; and implementing a process to effectively identify and resolve issues that may affect completion of reviews in a timely manner; effectively engage the public and interested stakeholders as early in the review process as possible; include opportunities to use existing share-in-cost authorities and other nonappropriated funding sources to support early coordination and project review; expand the use of information technology tools and identify priority areas for information technology investment to replace paperwork processes, enhance effective project siting decisions, enhance interagency collaboration, and improve the monitoring of project impacts and mitigation commitments; ensure that documents developed under the procedures are adopted and used by other Federal agencies, and State, local, and tribal governments, to the maximum extent practicable, to eliminate redundancy and duplicative reviews; include improvements to mitigation policies to provide added predictability, facilitate landscape-scale mitigation based on conservation plans and regional environmental assessments, facilitate interagency mitigation plans where appropriate, ensure accountability and long-term effectiveness of mitigation activities, and utilize innovative mechanisms where appropriate; and develop a process for periodically considering expansion of categorical exclusions for infrastructure projects described under subsection
(a)that conform to those of other modal administrations.
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Sec. 401
Project delivery rulemaking
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