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 site assessments with an "automatic sign off" process, a permit-by-rule model he calls "approve, build, and comply" (ABC), limiting redundant NEPA review to genuinely unquantified impacts, and a six-month deadline for electric interconnection decisions. "We have the hardware. We have the software. We just need to invest to make it happen," Connaughton said.

- Mayor Chris Bollwage, chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Brownfields Task Force and former mayor of Elizabeth, N.J., described local redevelopment examples including a former landfill turned shopping complex and waterfront housing. Bollwage recommended reauthorization levels of roughly $250–$300 million per year and higher grant caps (he proposed $10 million caps for cleanup and multipurpose grants, with $500,000 for assessments in his written testimony), and he urged maintaining administrative capacity at EPA so communities can access awarded funds.

- Christa Stoneham, president and CEO of the Houston Land Bank, outlined urban examples including Project Yellow Cab, a 6.8-acre brownfield conversion to affordable housing and energy‑efficient homes supported by local grants and assessment funding. "We don’t see brownfields as problems. We see them as possibilities," Stoneham said, while noting that lack of state zoning in Houston creates additional reuse complexity.

- Duane Miller, executive director of the Lenawisco Planning District Commission, focused on rural coal-impacted communities in Southwest Virginia and described leveraging Brownfields funds, Abandoned Mine Land Revitalization (AMLR) dollars and other state and local resources to develop industrial parks and recruit employers. He said the Brownfields program is "a lifeline" for rural communities and requested more tools to fund redevelopment beyond assessments and cleanups.

Points of contention and practical obstacles

Members and witnesses agreed on the program’s value but differed on how best to speed reuse. Several recurring barriers were cited:

- Permitting and timing: Witnesses said long delays in environmental permitting and NEPA-style reviews can block investment. Connaughton and others argued that where environmental risks are already quantified by other laws, duplicative NEPA analyses should be narrowed to unquantified, local suitability questions.

- Interconnection backlog: Multiple witnesses described multi‑year waits to connect new projects to the electric grid and urged administrative and technological fixes to shorten those timelines.

- Access to larger awards for complex sites: The IIJA temporarily relaxed caps and cost-share requirements; witnesses said larger awards and increased flexibility help tackle more technically difficult sites.

- Administrative capacity and funding stability: Witnesses and several members expressed concern that proposed cuts and a reported freeze on some EPA grant disbursements have delayed grants and procurement, jeopardizing projects and local hiring. Mayor Bollwage and others described an awarded $500,000 job-training grant that was being held up while communities waited to draw funds.

Numbers discussed in the hearing

- EPA estimate cited at the hearing: more than 450,000 brownfield properties nationwide. - Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) supplemental appropriation for brownfields: $1,500,000,000 (witnesses said roughly $1.2 billion went to EPA program awards and $300 million for state programs under IIJA allocations discussed in testimony). - Examples of grant sizes cited: assessment grants commonly in the $500,000 range; cleanup grants cited in witnesses’ examples at $5,000,000; witnesses asked Congress to consider caps in the range of $5–$10 million for certain large cleanups and multipurpose grants.

Select direct quotes

- "For every federal dollar that is awarded in this brownfields program, dollars 20.45 has been leveraged," Mayor Bollwage said, summarizing commonly cited leverage figures during his testimony.

- "The Brownfields program is a lifeline for these communities," Duane Miller said of rural coal-impacted localities in Southwest Virginia.

- "We have the hardware. We have the software. We just need to invest to make it happen," Jim Connaughton said, urging automation of interconnection and permitting systems.

Next steps and outlook

Members stressed the need to reauthorize the Brownfields statute before the current fiscal authority expires (witnesses cited the last statutory authorization as expiring in fiscal year 2023 and raised concerns about funding stability through 2026). Several members indicated they will press for timely reauthorization language, potential increases in annual authorization levels and provisions to test administrative reforms that reduce project timelines.

The hearing underscored bipartisan agreement on the program’s value and diverging views on the mix of funding increases, statutory reforms and administrative fixes needed to scale up brownfield redevelopment nationwide.