Congressman Fong Votes to Streamline Permitting and Cut Red Tape

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Vince Fong (CA-20) voted to pass the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, H.R. 4776, which amends the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) to ensure a more efficient, effective, and timely federal permitting process. While well-intentioned, NEPA has evolved into a burdensome and drawn-out process that has drastically increased costs and permitting timelines. The SPEED Act streamlines environmental review by clarifying ambiguous statutory provisions, reducing unnecessary delays, and limiting frivolous litigation while preserving standard environmental protections.

"Bureaucracy and red tape have stalled critical infrastructure in our communities, a concern I hear repeatedly as I meet with constituents across the Central Valley," said Congressman Fong (CA-20). "Whether it's energy, roads and highways, water storage, or housing, these delays drive up costs and cost us jobs. The SPEED Act cuts through the red tape and gets Washington out of the way so we can finally build what our region needs. This bipartisan legislation will create good-paying jobs, strengthen our local economy, and help keep costs down for families. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get the SPEED Act signed into law."

Please see more information about the SPEED Act below:

• Establishes a 150-day statute of limitations for filing NEPA claims after a final agency action is made public and requires courts to issue final judgments within 180 days of a case being filed.
• Clarifies that NEPA is a procedural statute that establishes an administrative framework for environmental review without mandating specific outcomes.
• Allows federal agencies to rely on environmental reviews conducted under other federal or state laws when those reviews meet NEPA requirements, eliminating duplicative processes.
• Narrows the scope of environmental review to impacts that are reasonably related to, or proximately caused by, the project under consideration, and prevents agencies from delaying final decisions while awaiting new research that is unavailable within established timelines.
• Reforms judicial review by limiting courts to remanding actions back to agencies with specific instructions for correction, rather than indefinitely halting projects.

On Background:

NEPA was enacted in 1969 to ensure agencies assess and disclose the environmental impacts of major federal actions prior to decision-making, which can include, but are not limited to, the construction of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, highways, ports, irrigation systems, forest management, transmission lines, energy projects, broadband and water infrastructure. However, over time, regulatory expansion and litigation have dramatically slowed project approvals. Unfortunately, NEPA has become a tool used by special interest groups to block critical infrastructure across the country, with litigation most often initiated not by communities or individuals, but by national NGOs.

In fact, NGOs filed more than 70% of all lawsuits filed under NEPA in recent years. Statistics show that litigants lose their challenges 80 percent of the time. But what they lost in court, they made up for in delays. According to the Council on Environmental Quality, environmental reviews for Federal Highway Administration projects take more than seven years on average to complete, and legal challenges add an additional 4.2 years on average. These delays can kill a project even when the litigation against it fails.

The SPEED Act builds on recent legal clarity from the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County (2025), which reaffirmed that NEPA imposes no substantive environmental mandates and does not require agencies to consider remote or speculative impacts unrelated to the project under review.