ARTBA’s Boals Offers NEPA Reform Ideas Before Congress

What happened: ARTBA Executive Committee Member Tony Boals, vice president with Tennessee-based Wright Brothers Construction, July 22 called on Congress to make three commonsense reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that could help speed up delivery of transportation improvement projects. Testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee, Boals called NEPA "a procedural tool meant to promote harmony between development and the environment" and recommended:

• Empowering more states to take on NEPA responsibilities by standardizing the application process, making NEPA assignment permanent after an initial audit, and offering more federal resources to cover any associated costs.
• Properly enforcing One Federal Decision to ensure lead agencies meet required timelines and page limitations.
• Increasing the federal funding threshold for categorical exclusions from $5 million to $10 million to reflect the post-pandemic increase in construction costs.

Why it matters: Boals noted that current inefficiencies in the federal permitting process, particularly on transportation projects, can create uncertainty that leads to potential project delays and threats of litigation, all of which translate into increased costs and diluted public resources. The recommendations shared today are part of ARTBA's "blueprint" for the next surface transportation reauthorization bill due September 2026.

What's next: Members of the committee indicated areas of bipartisan interest on permitting reform legislation, but it's unclear whether a bill will materialize. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is also readying bipartisan permitting legislation this year. ARTBA will continue to promote NEPA and related process reforms on Capitol Hill.

Read the full testimony.

Watch this two-minute video to hear ARTBA's three recommendations for restoring commonsense to NEPA.