NAHB Helps Advance Clean Water Act Legislative Package

The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee today advanced H.R. 3898, the PERMIT Act, a legislative package aimed at providing the necessary clarity and confidence needed under the Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting process.

The legislation respects environmental protections and provides pragmatic solutions to long-standing challenges faced by builders and developers under the Section 404 dredge and fill, and Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting programs.

T&I Committee leaders invited NAHB to collaborate directly on legislative text and negotiations throughout the process. Prior to the panel’s consideration of these bills, NAHB conveyed the association’s strong support for this legislative package that would cut red tape, reduce regulatory burdens, and streamline and expedite the permitting process while ensuring clean water protections.

“Confidence in the CWA permitting regime is a cornerstone to building more housing supply,” said NAHB said in a letter to lawmakers. “Combined, these legislative instruments respect environmental safeguards and make significant strides in ensuring clarity and predictability for home builders.”

Here is a brief summary of the bills included in the PERMIT Act:

• The Nationwide Permitting Improvement Act. Home builders pull some of the highest numbers of Section 404 Nationwide Permits (NWPs) issued annually. To assist with planning and permit backlogs, this legislation extends the duration of a NWP from 5 to 10 years and adjusts the acreage threshold for impacts to where the NWP was originally intended.
• The Clarifying Federal General Permits Act. This bill codifies long-established Waters of the United States (WOTUS) exclusions such as ephemeral features, groundwater and prior converted cropland that have been included as part of WOTUS regulations over the years. This will provide important predictability and consistency for home builders.
• The Confidence in Clean Water Permits Act. This requires permit writers to tie NPDES permit conditions to what happens on their site, rather than what happens downstream to impair receiving waters. This approach allows regulators to explain the measures that home builders must take to comply with their NPDES permit without imposing numeric discharge limits.
• The Judicial Review Timeline Clarity Act. Home builders complying with Section 404 permits require a level of certainty that their activity will not come to an abrupt halt due to capricious judicial reviews. This bill would place sensible timelines on when these actions may be filed, which will foster certitude when undertaking resource intensive projects.
• The Jurisdictional Determination Backlog Reduction Act. The backlog of jurisdictional determinations (JDs) is unnecessarily extending construction timelines and adding costs. This legislation will allocate resources to eliminate this backlog and will help home builders obtain timely JDs, which will help housing projects move forward quicker.
• The Restoring Federalism in Clean Water Permitting Act. This bill ensures that states will have a viable pathway to assume their own wetlands permitting process. Further, the legislation sets reasonable guidelines on how challenges to a state’s permitting program can proceed.

NAHB is urging the full House to vote on the PERMIT Act in a timely manner.