IB 
Union Calendar No. 341 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4503 
[Report No. 119–392] 
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 
DECEMBER 4, 2025 
Additional sponsors: Mr. CRANK, Mr. MAGAZINER, Mr. EVANS of Colorado, 
Mr. GRAY, Mr. CALVERT, Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas, Mrs. KIGGANS of Vir-
ginia, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Mr. HURD of Colorado, and Mr. VINDMAN 
DECEMBER 4, 2025 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on July 17, 2025] 
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A BILL 
To improve environmental reviews and authorizations 
through the use of interactive, digital, and cloud-based 
platforms, and for other purposes. 
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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 environ-
mental reviews and authorizations, including through 
the sharing of relevant information, alignment of en-
vironmental review timelines, and integration of au-
thorizations, while maintaining compliance with ap-
plicable statutory and regulatory requirements; 
(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 en-
sure data integrity, improve transparency, reduce 
costs, and enhance the ability of the Federal Govern-
ment to serve the public; 
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(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 proc-
ess improvement; 
(B) enabling workflow automation, trans-
parency, and tracking; and 
(C) simplifying reporting requirements; 
(5) modern business process management systems 
that track Federal agency workflows and produce ven-
dor neutral, interoperable event, task, and other mile-
stone data that can be shared with other Federal 
agency systems can reduce costs and improve per-
formance for Federal agencies responsible for environ-
mental reviews and authorizations; 
(6) case and project 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 au-
thorizations; 
(7) well-defined business rules can enable process 
automation that allows Federal agencies responsible 
for environmental reviews or authorizations to expe-
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dite routine tasks and workflows, and improve trans-
parency and accuracy of project timeline estimates, 
which in turn can help project sponsors better plan 
for application preparation and project delivery mile-
stones; 
(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 agency 
analyses and decisions, and enable objective, tech-
nology-assisted evaluation of environmental impacts, 
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 infor-
mation on accurate timelines and the status of envi-
ronmental reviews and authorizations; and 
(10) allowing for seamless information exchange 
among Federal agencies and between Federal agencies 
and project sponsors will increase predictability and 
efficiency of environmental review and authorization 
schedules for project sponsors. 
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SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF DATA STANDARDS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Chair of the Council on 
Environmental Quality, in consultation with the Federal 
Permitting Improvement Steering Council, the Chief Infor-
mation Officers Council, the Office of Management and 
Budget, and other relevant stakeholders and Federal agen-
cies, shall develop, publish, and iteratively update data 
standards for the collection and curation of authorization 
data by Federal agencies, which shall be used to— 
(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 environmental 
reviews by creating a shared vocabulary and software 
systems that will support vendor neutrality, data 
interoperability, workflow automation, and automatic 
data exchange between Federal agencies. 
(b) INCLUSIONS.—The data standards developed, pub-
lished, and iteratively updated under subsection (a) shall 
include the following: 
(1) A standardized taxonomy that allows Federal 
agencies to identify and track data types, relation-
ships, and values. 
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(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 applicable 
by process or Federal agency; 
(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 Services, 
the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, the 
Chief Information Officers Council, the Director of the Of-
fice of Management and Budget, and other relevant stake-
holders and Federal agencies, shall design, test, and build 
prototype tools for environmental reviews and authoriza-
tions that will assist Federal agencies in implementing the 
minimum functional requirements described in section 5. 
The Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality shall 
prioritize designing, testing, and building tools under this 
section that— 
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(1) support authorization case or project man-
agement systems that manage tasks, milestones, and 
activities associated with environmental reviews and 
authorizations, and provide Federal agencies more 
data and insight into such reviews and authoriza-
tions; 
(2) enable— 
(A) application submission and tracking 
portals used by project sponsors, enabling greater 
transparency; and 
(B) public comment opportunity tracking 
portals to increase transparency; 
(3) facilitate automated applications, environ-
mental reviews. and authorizations; 
(4) allow data exchange between Federal agency 
systems; and 
(5) accelerate complex environmental reviews. 
SEC. 5. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE FOR IMPLEMENTATION 
OF DATA STANDARDS AND MINIMUM FUNC-
TIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 120 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 au-
thorizations implements— 
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(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 re-
view and authorization data among Federal 
agencies. 
(B) Automated project screening to assist 
frontline staff with reviewing project sponsor 
provided information for completeness and accu-
racy and determining if a categorical exclusion 
or other general authorization applies to an ac-
tion. 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 or project management 
tools which include a repository of relevant data 
and metadata that enable advanced tracking, re-
porting, and optimization to aid workflows. 
(E) Integrated geographic information sys-
tem analysis tools which incorporate geospatial 
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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 con-
ducted during an environmental review or au-
thorization, to support future reviews and enable 
Artificial Intelligence-assisted analysis of past 
decisions. 
(G) Automated comment compilation and 
analysis tools, including services for comment 
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 experiences for 
Federal agency staff, project sponsors, and the 
public. 
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(b) INCLUSIONS.—The guidance published under this 
section shall include the following: 
(1) Guidelines for cloud-based storage, data shar-
ing protocols, and application programming inter-
faces to enable the Council on Environmental Quality 
to work with Federal agencies to use authorization 
data to aid Federal agencies in modernizing their en-
vironmental 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. 
SEC. 6. IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA STANDARDS AND MIN-
IMUM FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) IMPLEMENTATION.—The head of each Federal 
agency responsible for environmental reviews or authoriza-
tions shall— 
(1) not later than 90 days after the date of en-
actment of this Act— 
(A) compare existing Federal agency sys-
tems for environmental reviews and authoriza-
tions under their authority with the data stand-
ards published under section 3 and the min-
imum functional requirements described in sec-
tion 5(a)(2) and report findings from such com-
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parison to the Council on Environmental Qual-
ity; 
(B) assess whether existing Federal agency 
technological capabilities are consistent with the 
data standards published under section 3 and 
the minimum functional requirements described 
in section 5(a)(2); 
(C) submit to the Council on Environ-
mental Quality a report that estimates the com-
pletion dates for implementing the data stand-
ards published under section 3 and the min-
imum functional requirements described in sec-
tion 5(a)(2); and 
(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 section 
5(a)(2); and 
(ii) describes how, to the extent the 
Federal agency determines necessary to meet 
relevant statutory requirements, the Federal 
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agency will adopt or implement the proto-
type tools tested, designed, and built under 
section 4; and 
(2) not later than 180 days after the date of en-
actment 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 agency, in 
consultation with the Chief Environmental Review and 
Permitting Officer of each Federal agency, shall submit to 
the Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of 
the Office of Management and Budget a report on the 
progress of the Federal agency towards meeting the require-
ments 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 re-
views or authorizations shall iteratively develop and 
maintain a unified interagency data system con-
sisting of interconnected Federal agency systems and 
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shared services for environmental reviews and author-
izations. 
(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 pursuant 
to section 110 of the National Environ-
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 
4336d) titled ‘‘Council on Environ-
mental Quality Report to Congress on 
the Potential for Online and Digital 
Technologies to Address Delays in Re-
views 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 platform for tracking 
and displaying real-time data on environ-
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mental reviews and authorizations made 
available through application programming 
interfaces or other reporting mechanisms 
from Federal agency systems that are com-
pliant with the data standards and data 
architecture described in this Act; 
(iii) be supported by a decentralized, 
cross-network digital infrastructure software 
that ensures vendor neutrality and inter-
operability of data and models across Fed-
eral agencies; 
(iv) include a mechanism for the dis-
semination of relevant information (such as 
a notice of intent for public comment, pub-
lic meetings, project statuses, or a notice of 
intent to begin an environmental review) to 
local communities, as applicable; 
(v) allow a project sponsor to submit 
all necessary documentation for environ-
mental reviews and authorizations in one 
unified and secure portal; 
(vi) support interactive, digital, and 
cloud-based tools enabling applicants to edit 
documents and collaborate with relevant 
Federal agencies in real time; 
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(vii) support visual features, including 
video, animation, geographic information 
system displays, interactive maps, and 
three-dimensional renderings; 
(viii) provide for the exchange of infor-
mation to and from Federal agency data 
systems via an application programming 
interface or another reporting mechanisms; 
(ix) allow for the submission of 
geospatial data associated with project loca-
tion, footprint, and impact; 
(x) support automatic documentation 
of submission and process timelines; and 
(xi) allow the following metrics to be 
tracked over time— 
(I) estimates of achieved effi-
ciencies, such as reductions in the 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; 
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(IV) metrics on the number of 
public comments received, responses 
provided, and community meetings 
held; 
(V) the number of projects subject 
to litigation based on authorization de-
ficiencies 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 re-
quirements described in section 5(a)(2), 
along with their progress toward com-
pliance; and 
(VII) examples or repositories of 
Federal 
agency-developed 
digital 
workflows enabled by the implementa-
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 au-
thorization portal as a shared service for Con-
gress, Federal agencies, and the public. 
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(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 extent 
practicable and consistent with other law, the 
authorization portal shall provide public access 
to non-sensitive data, including authorization 
timelines, location, project type, environmental 
reviews, and mitigation measures. 
(E) CONGRESSIONAL
ACCESS
AND
OVER-
SIGHT.— 
(i) IN
GENERAL.—The authorization 
portal shall provide Congress with direct ac-
cess to aggregated performance data and 
other analytics to enable real-time oversight 
of Federal agencies. 
(ii) ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
SUP-
PORT
SYSTEMS
AND
TRAINING
MATE-
RIALS.—Congress shall have access to the 
data, fine-tuning procedures, and prompt 
configurations specifically created or adapt-
ed for Artificial Intelligence systems used to 
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support environmental review or authoriza-
tion activities, excluding proprietary or 
general pretraining materials unrelated to 
such agency-specific customization. 
(iii) 
TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE.—The 
Council on Environmental Quality shall 
provide to Congress technical assistance 
upon request to ensure effective use of the 
authorization portal and Artificial Intel-
ligence systems for oversight purposes. 
(3) CYBERSECURITY AND COMPLIANCE CONSID-
ERATIONS.—The authorization portal shall be de-
signed to promote vendor neutral interoperability, re-
duce redundancy, and ensure compliance and coordi-
nation 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 Homeland 
Security, for a case in which the project is in co-
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ordination with a Federal agency with stringent 
security requirements. 
(b) DEADLINES.— 
(1) SHARED SERVICES PILOT.—Not later than 
one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Council on Environmental Quality shall oversee pilot-
ing of shared services for environmental reviews and 
authorizations, including the authorization portal 
under subsection (a)(2). 
(2) UNIFIED SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLE-
MENTATION.—To the maximum extent practicable, 
not later than December 1, 2027, the Chair of the 
Council on Environmental Quality shall develop and 
implement the unified interagency data system re-
quired 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 sub-
mit to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House 
of Representatives and the Committee on Environment and 
Public Works of the Senate a report on the Council on Envi-
ronmental Quality’s progress on developing a unified inter-
agency data system under subsection (a). 
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SEC. 8. AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS. 
The Council on Environmental Quality may enter into 
contracts and other arrangements for analyses, services, and 
products with Federal agencies, private organizations, and 
businesses, and make such payments as determined nec-
essary 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 be-
yond those expressly stipulated under the National Envi-
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) or 
any other law. 
SEC. 10. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 
To the extent that a data system, technology, or tool 
developed or incorporated into a unified interagency data 
system under this Act is not limited by project type, the 
data system, technology, or tool shall not have its use be 
restricted by project type. 
SEC. 11. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AUTHORIZATION.—The term ‘‘authorization’’ 
means any license, permit, approval, finding, deter-
mination, or other administrative decision issued by 
an agency and any interagency consultation that is 
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required or authorized under Federal law in order to 
site, construct, reconstruct, or commence 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 environ-
ment of an action for which an authoriza-
tion 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, proc-
essing, and exchange. 
(4) DATA STANDARDS.—The term ‘‘data stand-
ards’’ means agreed-upon specifications for data for-
mats, structures, and definitions to ensure consistency 
and vendor neutral interoperability. 
(5) ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW.—The term ‘‘envi-
ronmental review’’ means any Federal agency proce-
dures 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 agen-
cy’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘agency’’ in sec-
tion 551 of title 5, United States Code. 
(7) FEDERAL PERMITTING IMPROVEMENT STEER-
ING
COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Federal Permitting Im-
provement Steering Council’’ has the meaning given 
the term ‘‘Council’’ in section 41001 of the FAST Act 
(42 U.S.C. 4370m). 
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Union Calendar No. 341 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 4503 
[Report No. 119–392] 
A BILL 
To improve environmental reviews and authoriza-
tions through the use of interactive, digital, and 
cloud-based platforms, and for other purposes. 
DECEMBER 4, 2025 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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