House Energy and Commerce hearing highlights Brownfields funding boost, permitting delays and calls for reauthorization

Congressional members and witnesses at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Brownfields oversight on Oct. 12 heard bipartisan calls to reauthorize and expand the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program while addressing permitting and funding bottlenecks that slow cleanup and redevelopment.

The hearing opened with Chairman Griffith (Subcommittee on Environment) noting that "the Brownfields Program may also be a good tool to help secure American leadership in emerging industries and traditional manufacturing," and highlighted the program’s role in putting contaminated or underused properties back into productive use.

Why it matters: The program provides assessment, cleanup and redevelopment grants to states, tribes, local governments and nonprofits. Since its formal establishment in the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of February 2002 and codification under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Brownfields funding has been used to ready sites for new development, expand public access to waterfronts and support jobs. Witnesses and members said the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $1.5 billion supplemental appropriation for Brownfields was an important, recent investment, but that the program’s statutory authorization has expired and funding pressure remains.

Key testimony and proposals

- Jim Connaughton, a technology entrepreneur and former federal official, urged procedural reforms to reduce delays that make brownfield projects two to three times more expensive. He recommended authorizing certified third-party…