Environmental Streamlining and Stewardship requires transportation agencies to work together with natural, cultural, and historic resource agencies to establish realistic timeframes for the environmental review of transportation projects. These agencies then need to work cooperatively to adhere to those timeframes, while they are protecting and enhancing the environment. The efficient and effective coordination of multiple environmental reviews, analyses, and permitting actions is essential to meeting the Environmental Streamlining and Stewardship mandates for highway and transit projects under SAFETEA-LU.

Environmental Streamlining and NEPA: A History

The national commitment to the environment was formalized through the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. NEPA establishes a national environmental policy and provides a framework for environmental planning and decisionmaking by Federal agencies. NEPA directs Federal agencies, when planning projects or issuing permits, to conduct environmental reviews to consider the potential impacts on the environment by their proposed actions. NEPA also established the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which is charged with the administration of NEPA. The NEPA process consists of a set of fundamental objectives that include interagency coordination and cooperation and public participation in planning and project development decisionmaking.

Environmental reviews involve an interdisciplinary and interagency process. The lead Federal agency works cooperatively with other Federal and state agencies during the environmental review process. This coordinated review process includes input from the public, as well as from other agencies, to guarantee that all environmental protections, as well as all other issues are addressed.

Executive Order 13274

On September 18, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13274, titled Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews, which emphasizes the importance of expedited transportation project delivery while being good stewards of the environment. The executive order complements and reinforces the strategic direction that FHWA established in its Environmental Stewardship and Streamlining Vital Few Goal (see below). FHWA is setting expectations, measures, and methods for advancing an improved and efficient environmental review process and for demonstrating environmental stewardship (see Administrator's Memorandum on Environmental Stewardship and Streamlining).

SAFETEA-LU

On August 10, 2005, President George W. Bush signed into law the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). The two landmark bills that brought surface transportation into the 21st century-the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)-shaped the highway program to meet the Nation's changing transportation needs. SAFETEA-LU builds on this firm foundation, supplying the funds and refining the programmatic framework for investments needed to maintain and grow our vital transportation infrastructure.

SAFETEA-LU addresses the many challenges facing our transportation system today such as improving safety, reducing traffic congestion, improving efficiency in freight movement, increasing intermodal connectivity, and protecting the environment as well as laying the groundwork for addressing future challenges. SAFETEA-LU promotes more efficient and effective Federal surface transportation programs by focusing on transportation issues of national significance, while giving State and local transportation decision makers more flexibility for solving transportation problems in their communities.

A number of SAFETEA-LU provisions are aimed at improving efficiency in highway program and project delivery. From better planning and coordination to improved materials, contracting and construction, these provisions will support efforts to more efficiently advance a safer and more effective highway program, and strengthen stewardship and oversight.

For additional information, contact Ruth Rentch at ruth.rentch@dot.gov, Office of Project Development and Environmental Review, (202) 366-2034.

Visit the SAFETEA-LU Environmental Provisions and Related Information page to learn more.

TEA-21

Section 1309 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) mandated Environmental Streamlining as the timely delivery of transportation projects while protecting and enhancing the environment. Environmental Streamlining requires transportation and natural, cultural, and historic resource agencies to establish realistic timeframes for transportation and environmental resource agencies to develop projects, and then to work cooperatively to adhere to those timeframes. A key element of Environmental Streamlining is communication with and the gathering of input from the public and stakeholders.

Interagency Funding Guidance

The purpose of Interagency Funding Guidance is to provide the USDOT, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Division offices, State DOTs, local transit operators, Federal resource agencies, and Federally recognized Indian tribes with the tools needed to develop mutually beneficial agreements to meet the goals of SAFETEA-LU. For more information on Interagency Funding Guidance, please visit http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/strmlng/igdocs/index.asp.

For questions or feedback on this subject, please contact Ruth Rentch at 202-366-2034. For general questions or web problems, please send feedback to the web administrator.