ePermit Act
H.R. 4503
H.R. 4503
07/17/2025
Within 180 days of enactment, the ePermit Act would require the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other relevant stakeholders to develop uniform federal data standards for project permitting and financial assistance data - including standardized taxonomies, project permits and processes, public comments, geospatial information, events and milestones.
The bill further mandates the development of various digital tools or environmental reviews and authorizations to assist federal agencies in implementing minimum functional requirements, including application data sharing, automated project screening, public availability to screening criteria, a repository of data that enables tracking and reporting, document management tools, automated comment compilation, and administrative record management tools among other requirements. TThe legislation also directs CEQ and partners to create and maintain a centralized, interactive, cloud-based digital portal for environmental review and permitting. This portal could allow applicants to submit all required documents in a secure location and enable collaboration with agencies, publicly display real-time permitting data and process metrics.
As President Trump identified in his presidential memoranda, “Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century,” infrastructure developers face a lack of publicly available, real-time data about the volume and status of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews and related permits across federal agencies. In May 2025, the Council on Environment Quality (CEQ) released its “Permitting Technology Action” plan directing agencies to provide public access to up-to-date information on the status of project reviews and accurate timelines for process completion. Launching a minimum functional requirements for data transparency and a centralized, publicly accessible dashboard showing the real-time status of all NEPA documents and permits and codifying it through legislation would improve public confidence, identify systemic bottlenecks, help both internal staff and external applicants better plan for project timelines and promote American energy dominance.
This bipartisan bill will ensure federal agencies leverage technology to speed up environmental reviews. It is a critical piece of the broader permitting reform necessary to let America build and unleash American energy dominance.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD)
Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA)
ClearPath Action