I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4503 
To improve environmental reviews and authorizations through the use of 
interactive, digital, and cloud-based platforms, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 17, 2025 
Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota (for himself and Mr. PETERS) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To improve environmental reviews and authorizations 
through the use of interactive, digital, and cloud-based 
platforms, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ePermit Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds that— 
(1) coordination between Federal, State, and 
local agencies and project sponsors is critical to en-
suring the timely and effective completion of envi-
ronmental reviews and authorizations, including 
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through the sharing of relevant information, align-
ment of environmental review timelines, and integra-
tion of authorizations, while maintaining compliance 
with applicable statutory and regulatory require-
ments; 
(2) digital strategies for environmental reviews 
have proven to make the community engagement 
process more accessible, available, and transparent 
to all stakeholders, especially the communities in 
which new projects are built; 
(3) establishing robust data architectures will 
ensure data integrity, improve transparency, reduce 
costs, and enhance the ability of the Federal Govern-
ment to serve the public; 
(4) Federal agency use of modern software that 
can track the full lifecycle of environmental reviews 
and authorizations is critical for— 
(A) effective project management and 
process improvement; 
(B) enabling workflow automation, trans-
parency, and tracking; and 
(C) simplifying reporting requirements; 
(5) modern business process management sys-
tems that track Federal agency workflows and 
produce interoperable event, task, and other mile-
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stone data that can be shared with other Federal 
agency systems can reduce costs and improve per-
formance for Federal agencies responsible for envi-
ronmental reviews and authorizations; 
(6) case management systems— 
(A) are essential tools for managing the 
tasks and activities associated with environ-
mental reviews and authorizations; and 
(B) provide Federal agencies more data 
and insight into such environmental reviews 
and authorizations; 
(7) well-defined business rules can enable proc-
ess automation that allows Federal agencies respon-
sible for environmental reviews or authorizations to 
expedite routine tasks and workflows, and improve 
transparency and accuracy of project timeline esti-
mates, which in turn can help project sponsors bet-
ter plan for application preparation and project de-
livery milestones; 
(8) taking a standardized, digital-first perspec-
tive to environmental reviews and authorizations at 
Federal agencies responsible for environmental re-
views or authorizations will improve document qual-
ity, lead to more concise reports, enable the reuse 
and accessibility of the data underpinning Federal 
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agency analyses and decisions, and enable objective, 
technology-assisted evaluation of environmental im-
pacts, analysis, and documentation, and accelerate 
future environmental reviews and authorizations; 
(9) Federal agencies responsible for environ-
mental reviews or authorizations, project sponsors, 
and the public should have access to up-to-date in-
formation on accurate timelines and the status of 
environmental reviews and authorizations; and 
(10) allowing for seamless information exchange 
among Federal agencies and between Federal agen-
cies and project sponsors will increase predictability 
and efficiency of environmental review and author-
ization schedules for project sponsors. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF DATA STANDARDS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Chair of the Council 
on Environmental Quality, in consultation with the Fed-
eral Permitting Improvement Steering Council, the Chief 
Information Officers Council, the Office of Management 
and Budget, and other relevant stakeholders and Federal 
agencies, shall develop, publish, and iteratively update 
data standards for the collection and curation of author-
ization data by Federal agencies, which shall be used to— 
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(1) assist with environmental reviews and au-
thorizations; 
(2) organize, define, and standardize various 
concepts, formats, and protocols that are included in 
environmental reviews and authorizations; and 
(3) reduce the need for redundant environ-
mental reviews by creating a shared vocabulary and 
software systems that will support data interoper-
ability and automatic data exchange between Fed-
eral agencies. 
(b) INCLUSIONS.—The data standards developed, 
published, and iteratively updated under subsection (a) 
shall include the following: 
(1) A standardized taxonomy that allows Fed-
eral agencies to identify and track data types, rela-
tionships, and values. 
(2) Comprehensive categories for data, such 
as— 
(A) projects; 
(B) processes; 
(C) environmental documents; 
(D) public comments; 
(E) geospatial information; 
(F) public engagement events, as applica-
ble by process or Federal agency; 
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(G) case events; and 
(H) milestones to ensure clarity and uni-
formity. 
SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE TOOLS. 
The Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, 
in consultation with the Administrator of General Serv-
ices, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Coun-
cil, the Chief Information Officers Council, the Director 
of the Office of Management and Budget, and other rel-
evant stakeholders and Federal agencies, shall design, 
test, and build prototype tools for environmental reviews 
and authorizations that will assist Federal agencies in im-
plementing the minimum functional requirements de-
scribed in section 5. The Chair of the Council on Environ-
mental Quality shall prioritize designing, testing, and 
building tools under this section that— 
(1) support authorization case management sys-
tems that manage tasks, milestones, and activities 
associated with environmental reviews and author-
izations, and provide Federal agencies more data 
and insight into such reviews and authorizations; 
(2) enable application submission and tracking 
portals used by project sponsors, enabling greater 
transparency; 
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(3) facilitate automated applications, environ-
mental reviews. and authorizations; 
(4) allow data exchange between Federal agen-
cy systems; and 
(5) accelerate complex environmental reviews. 
SEC. 5. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE FOR IMPLEMENTA-
TION OF DATA STANDARDS AND MINIMUM 
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 30 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Chair of the Council 
on Environmental Quality shall publish guidance for how 
each Federal agency responsible for environmental reviews 
or authorizations implements— 
(1) the data standards published under section 
3; and 
(2) the following minimum functional require-
ments: 
(A) Application data sharing that enables 
automated transfer of relevant environmental 
review and authorization data among Federal 
agencies. 
(B) Automated project screening to assist 
frontline staff with reviewing project sponsor 
provided information for completeness and ac-
curacy and determining if a categorical exclu-
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sion or other general authorization applies to an 
action. Automated project screening may not be 
used by the Council on Environmental Quality 
or a Federal agency to unlawfully restrict any 
activities on Federal lands. 
(C) Public availability of screening criteria 
and related decision models. 
(D) Automated case management tools 
which include a repository of relevant data and 
metadata that enable advanced tracking, report-
ing, and optimization to aid workflows. 
(E) Integrated geographic information sys-
tem analysis tools which incorporate geospatial 
data layers and models for each resource ana-
lyzed as part of an environmental review or au-
thorization for a given study area. 
(F) Document management tools that pre-
serve metadata associated with geospatial anal-
ysis, modeling, and other analytic processes 
conducted during an environmental review or 
authorization, to support future reviews and en-
able Artificial Intelligence-assisted analysis of 
past decisions. 
(G) Automated comment compilation and 
analysis tools, including services for comment 
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categorization and response that handle the 
lifecycle of comment submission, analysis, cat-
egorization and response with Artificial Intel-
ligence support where appropriate. 
(H) Administrative record management 
tools that maintain both portable document for-
mats and data-rich repositories accessible to 
both machine and human users. 
(I) Common or interoperable Federal agen-
cy services that integrate shared services, 
shared applications, and common user experi-
ences for Federal agency staff, project sponsors, 
and the public. 
(b) INCLUSIONS.—The guidance published under this 
section shall include the following: 
(1) Guidelines for cloud-based storage, data 
sharing protocols, and application programming 
interfaces to enable the Council on Environmental 
Quality to work with Federal agencies to use author-
ization data to aid Federal agencies in modernizing 
their environmental reviews and authorizations and 
for iterative development of the authorization portal. 
(2) Provisions that support scalability and 
adaptability of the minimum requirements to emerg-
ing technologies. 
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(D) submit to the Council on Environ-
mental Quality, in consultation with the Council 
on Environmental Quality, an implementation 
plan that— 
(i) describes how the Federal agency 
will implement the data standards pub-
lished under section 3 and the minimum 
functional requirements described in sec-
tion 5(a)(2); and 
(ii) describes how, to the extent the 
Federal agency determines necessary to 
meet relevant statutory requirements, the 
Federal agency will adopt or implement 
the prototype tools tested, designed, and 
built under section 4; and 
(2) not later than 180 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, begin implementing the data 
standards published under section 3 and the min-
imum functional requirements described in section 
5(a)(2). 
(b) REPORT.—Not less frequently than twice each 
year, the Chief Information Officer of each Federal agen-
cy, in consultation with the Chief Environmental Review 
and Permitting Officer of each Federal agency, shall sub-
mit to the Council on Environmental Quality and the Di-
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rector of the Office of Management and Budget a report 
on the progress of the Federal agency towards meeting 
the requirements of subsection (a). 
SEC. 7. UNIFIED INTERAGENCY DATA SYSTEM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) UNIFIED INTERAGENCY DATA SYSTEM.—To 
the maximum extent practicable, the Chair of the 
Council of Environmental Quality and the head of 
each Federal agency responsible for environmental 
reviews or authorizations shall iteratively develop 
and maintain a unified interagency data system con-
sisting of interconnected Federal agency systems 
and shared services for environmental reviews and 
authorizations. 
(2) AUTHORIZATION PORTAL.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The shared services de-
veloped and maintained under paragraph (1) 
shall include a common interactive, digital, 
cloud-based authorization portal, which shall— 
(i) be designed in a manner consistent 
with— 
(I) the recommendations of the 
Council on Environmental Quality in-
cluded in the study submitted pursu-
ant to section 110 of the National En-
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vironmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 
U.S.C. 4336d) titled ‘‘Council on En-
vironmental Quality Report to Con-
gress on the Potential for Online and 
Digital 
Technologies 
to 
Address 
Delays in Reviews and Improve Public 
Accessibility and Transparency under 
42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)’’; and 
(II) the minimum functional re-
quirements 
described 
in 
section 
5(a)(2); 
(ii) serve as a centralized platform for 
tracking and displaying real-time data on 
environmental reviews and authorizations 
made available through application pro-
gramming interfaces or other reporting 
mechanisms from Federal agency systems 
that are compliant with the data standards 
and data architecture described in this Act; 
(iii) include a mechanism for the dis-
semination of relevant information (such 
as a notice of intent for public comment, 
public meetings, project statuses, or a no-
tice of intent to begin an environmental re-
view) to local communities, as applicable; 
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(iv) allow a project sponsor to submit 
all necessary documentation for environ-
mental reviews and authorizations in one 
unified and secure portal; 
(v) support interactive, digital, and 
cloud-based tools enabling applicants to 
edit documents and collaborate with rel-
evant Federal agencies in real time; 
(vi) support visual features, including 
video, animation, geographic information 
system displays, interactive maps, and 
three-dimensional renderings; 
(vii) provide for the exchange of infor-
mation to and from Federal agency data 
systems via an application programming 
interface or another reporting mechanisms; 
(viii) allow for the submission of 
geospatial data associated with project lo-
cation, footprint, and impact; 
(ix) support automatic documentation 
of submission and process timelines; and 
(x) allow the following metrics to be 
tracked over time— 
(I) estimates of achieved effi-
ciencies, such as reductions in the 
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time between receipt of applications 
and final authorization decisions; 
(II) comparisons of authorization 
timelines before and after the imple-
mentation of this Act; 
(III) usage of the authorization 
portal and other statistics from the 
Digital Analytics Program; 
(IV) metrics on the number of 
public comments received, responses 
provided, and community meetings 
held; 
(V) the number of projects sub-
ject to litigation based on authoriza-
tion deficiencies or inefficiencies; 
(VI) a list of Federal agencies 
that are not yet fully compliant with 
the data standards published under 
section 3 and the minimum functional 
requirements 
described 
in 
section 
5(a)(2), along with their progress to-
ward compliance; and 
(VII) examples or repositories of 
Federal 
agency-developed 
digital 
workflows enabled by the implementa-
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tion of this Act, including visualiza-
tions of data sharing, authorizations 
and decision logic, and environmental 
reviews. 
(B) ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT.—The Ad-
ministrator of General Services shall host the 
authorization portal as a shared service for 
Congress, Federal agencies, and the public. 
(C) ACCESSABILITY.—The authorization 
portal shall be accessible to Congress, Federal 
agencies, and the public, with appropriate safe-
guards to protect sensitive or classified informa-
tion and information restricted by user type as 
appropriate. 
(D) PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY.—To the ex-
tent practicable and consistent with other law, 
the authorization portal shall provide public ac-
cess to non-sensitive data, including authoriza-
tion timelines, location, project type, environ-
mental reviews, and mitigation measures. 
(E) CONGRESSIONAL ACCESS AND OVER-
SIGHT.— 
(i) IN GENERAL.—The authorization 
portal shall provide Congress with direct 
access to aggregated performance data and 
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other analytics to enable real-time over-
sight of Federal agencies. 
(ii) TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE.—The 
Council on Environmental Quality shall 
provide to Congress technical assistance 
upon request to ensure effective use of the 
authorization portal for oversight purposes. 
(3) CYBERSECURITY AND COMPLIANCE CONSID-
ERATIONS.—The authorization portal shall be de-
signed to promote interoperability, reduce redun-
dancy, and ensure compliance and coordination with 
other laws, including— 
(A) section 552a of title 5, United States 
Code (commonly referred to as the Privacy Act 
of 1974), and subchapter II of chapter 35 of 
title 44, United States Code; 
(B) the Federal Risk and Authorization 
Management Program established under section 
3608 of title 44, United States Code; and 
(C) the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency of the Department of Home-
land Security, for a case in which the project is 
in coordination with a Federal agency with 
stringent security requirements. 
(b) DEADLINES.— 
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(1) SHARED SERVICES PILOT.—Not later than 
one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Council on Environmental Quality shall oversee pi-
loting of shared services for environmental reviews 
and authorizations, including the authorization por-
tal under subsection (a)(2). 
(2) UNIFIED SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND IM-
PLEMENTATION.—To the maximum extent prac-
ticable, not later than December 1, 2027, the Chair 
of the Council on Environmental Quality shall de-
velop and implement the unified interagency data 
system required under subsection (a)(1). 
(c) REPORT.—Not less frequently than annually, the 
Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, in con-
sultation with the Federal Permitting Improvement Steer-
ing Council, the Chief Information Officers Council, and 
other relevant stakeholders and Federal agencies, shall 
submit to the Committee on Natural Resources of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 
and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on the 
Council on Environmental Quality’s progress on devel-
oping a unified interagency data system under subsection 
(a). 
(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
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$1,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2032, 
to remain available until expended. 
SEC. 8. AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS. 
The Council on Environmental Quality may enter 
into contracts and other arrangements for analyses, serv-
ices, and products with Federal agencies, private organiza-
tions, and businesses, and make such payments as deter-
mined necessary by the Council on Environmental Quality 
to carry out the provisions of this Act. 
SEC. 9. CLARIFYING RULEMAKING AUTHORITY. 
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize 
the Council on Environmental Quality or a Federal agency 
to impose additional regulatory processes or requirements 
beyond those expressly stipulated under the National En-
vironmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 
or any other law. 
SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AUTHORIZATION.—The term ‘‘authoriza-
tion’’ means any license, permit, approval, finding, 
determination, or other administrative decision 
issued by an agency and any interagency consulta-
tion that is required or authorized under Federal 
law in order to site, construct, reconstruct, or com-
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mence operations of a project administered by a 
Federal agency. 
(2) AUTHORIZATION DATA.—The term ‘‘author-
ization data’’ means— 
(A) any data relevant for a Federal agency 
to— 
(i) determine the effect on the envi-
ronment of an action for which an author-
ization is required by the Federal agency; 
and 
(ii) determine whether to issue such 
authorization; and 
(B) any community input or public com-
ment on such determinations. 
(3) DATA ARCHITECTURE.—The term ‘‘data ar-
chitecture’’ means the design and organization of 
data systems, including frameworks for data storage, 
processing, and exchange. 
(4) DATA STANDARDS.—The term ‘‘data stand-
ards’’ means agreed-upon specifications for data for-
mats, structures, and definitions to ensure consist-
ency and interoperability. 
(5) ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW.—The term ‘‘en-
vironmental review’’ means any Federal agency pro-
cedures or processes for— 
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(A) applying a categorical exclusion; or 
(B) preparing an environmental assess-
ment, an environmental impact statement, or 
another document required under the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 
4321 et seq.). 
(6) FEDERAL
AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal 
agency’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘agency’’ 
in section 551 of title 5, United States Code. 
(7) 
FEDERAL
PERMITTING
IMPROVEMENT 
STEERING COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Federal Permitting 
Improvement Steering Council’’ has the meaning 
given the term ‘‘Council’’ in section 41001 of the 
FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m). 
Æ 
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