Permitting Council defends transparency gains; members press on funding and tribal assistance

Emily Domenech, the Permitting Council’s executive director, told the subcommittee the council’s role is primarily coordination and project management: it does not change substantive environmental laws but posts comprehensive permitting timetables and improves transparency on the FAST‑41 dashboard.

Domenech cited portfolio statistics and outcomes: since her appointment the permanent council had added projects to the dashboard and shown substantial reductions in completion times on listed projects, saying the average time to completion for dashboard projects in the last year and a half has been "400 days." She told members $33 million of technology‑modernization funding was distributed to agencies for projects such as converting Coast Guard bridge permit forms from paper to digital and developing shared services for Section 106 reviews.

Members asked about the Inflation Reduction Act’s $350 million Environmental Review Improvement Fund. Domenech said roughly $160 million was approved for transfer to participating agencies to increase permitting capacity, but she did not have agency staffing attrition numbers on hand and offered to provide written answers. On tribal assistance, she said roughly $500,000 of the $15 million earmarked had been spent and that the program is being rescoping through OMB while outreach to tribes continues.

Domenech also described MOUs with states (Idaho, Tennessee and others) to post state permitting actions on the dashboard so federal and state reviews can be coordinated in parallel, which she said helps reduce unnecessary sequential delays.