Completed actions under Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 214/Transportation Agreements
The Corps regulatory program is funded as a congressionally appropriated line item in the annual Federal budget. Additional funds received by the partners would be used to augment the budget of the Corps in accordance with the provisions of Section 214 of WRDA 2000, as amended. The Corps would establish a separate account to track the receipt and expenditure of the funds.
Activities for which funds will be expended: Funds would be expended primarily on the labor and overhead of regulatory personnel processing permit applications by partners. Such permit processing activities could include, but not be limited to, the following: development of regional general permits and letters of permission associated with actions covered by a habitat conservation plan, application completeness review, jurisdictional determinations, site visits, preparation of public notices, preparation of correspondence, meetings, consultation with other agencies, public interest review, distribution of public notices, analysis of alternatives, compensatory mitigation proposal reviews, preparation of environmental assessments, and preparation of permit decision documents. Funds may also be expended to pay for support services or to hire independent contractors.
To ensure the funds will not impact impartial decision-making, the following procedures would apply:
(a) All final permit decisions for cases where these funds are used must be reviewed at least one level above the decision maker, unless the decision maker is the District Commander. For example, if the decision maker is the Chief of the Regulatory Division, then the reviewer would be the District Commander.
(b) All final permit decisions for applications where these funds are expended will be made available on the Sacramento District web page.
(c) The Corps will not eliminate any procedures or decisions that would otherwise be required for that type of project and permit application under consideration.
(d) The Corps will comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
(e) Funds will only be expended to provide priority review of the participating non-Federal entity's permit applications.
Impacts to the Regulatory Program: We do not expect priority review of partner projects to negatively impact the regulatory program or to increase the time for permit evaluations of other projects since additional staff will be hired to augment this priority review.
The text of the act is as follows:
(a) FUNDING TO PROCESS PERMITS
(1) DEFINITIONS – In this subsection:
(A) NATURAL GAS COMPANY – The term ‘natural gas company’ has the meaning given the term in section 1262 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16451), except that the term also includes a person engaged in the transportation of natural gas in intrastate commerce.
(B) PUBLIC-UTILITY COMPANY – The term ‘public-utility company’ has the meaning given the term in section 1262 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16451).
(2) PERMIT PROCESSING – The Secretary, after public notice, may accept and expend funds contributed by a non-Federal public entity or a public-utility company or natural gas company to expedite the evaluation of a permit of that entity or company related to a project or activity for a public purpose under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army.
(3) LIMITATION FOR PUBLIC-UTILITY AND NATURAL GAS COMPANIES – The authority provided under paragraph (2) to a public-utility company or natural gas company shall expire on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of this paragraph.
(4) EFFECT ON OTHER ENTITIES – To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall ensure that expediting the evaluation of a permit through the use of funds accepted and expended under this section does not adversely affect the timeline for evaluation (in the Corps district in which the project or activity is located) of permits under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army of other entities that have not contributed funds under this section.
(5) GAO STUDY – Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Comptroller General of the United States shall carry out a study of the implementation by the Secretary of the authority provided under paragraph (2) to public-utility companies and natural gas companies.
(b) EFFECT ON PERMITTING
(1) IN GENERAL – In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall ensure that the use of funds accepted under sub-section (a) will not impact impartial decision making with respect to permits, either substantively or procedurally.
(2) IMPARTIAL DECISIONMAKING – In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall ensure that the evaluation of permits carried out using funds accepted under this section shall
(A) be reviewed by
(i) the District Commander, or the Commander’s designee, of the Corps District in which the project or activity is located; or
(ii) the Commander of the Corps Division in which the District is located if the evaluation of the permit is initially conducted by the District Commander; and
(B) utilize the same procedures for decisions that would otherwise be required for the evaluation of permits for similar projects or activities not carried out using funds authorized under this section.
(c) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS – None of the funds accepted under this section shall be used to carry out a review of the evaluation of permits required under subsection (b)(2)(A).
(d) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY –
(1) IN GENERAL - The Secretary shall ensure that all final permit decisions carried out using funds authorized under this section are made available to the public in a common format, including on the Internet, and in a manner that distinguishes final permit decisions under this section from other final actions of the Secretary.
(2) DECISION DOCUMENT – The Secretary shall –
(A) use a standard decision document for evaluating all permits using funds accepted under this section; and
(B) make the standard decision document, along with all final permit decisions, available to the public, including on the Internet.
(3) AGREEMENTS – The Secretary shall make all active agreements to accept funds under this section available on a single public Internet site.
(e) REPORTING
(1) IN GENERAL – The Secretary shall prepare an annual report on the implementation of this section, which, at a minimum, shall include for each district of the Corps of Engineers that accepts funds under this section –
(A) a comprehensive list of any funds accepted under this section during the previous fiscal year;
(B) a comprehensive list of the permits reviewed and approved using funds accepted under this section during the previous fiscal year, including a description of the size and type of resources impacted and the mitigation required for each permit; and
(C) a description of the training offered in the previous fiscal year for employees that is funded in whole or in part with funds accepted under this section.
(2) SUBMISSION – Not later than 90 days after the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall –
(A) submit to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives the annual report described in paragraph (1); and
(B) make each report received under sub-paragraph (A) available on a single publicly accessible Internet site.