U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton (D, Ariz.) and Dusty Johnson (R, S.D.) and Sens. Mark Kelly (D, Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R, Wy.) introduced the bipartisan Interactive Federal Review Act to address one of the root causes of costly infrastructure project delays—inefficient and opaque environmental review processes.
The bill would create a pilot program to move the development of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents from static PDFs and paper copies to interactive, cloud-based platforms. These digital tools are estimated to shorten the time spent reviewing documents for large projects by 50% through real-time, concurrent reviews by agencies and more transparency of the NEPA process for impacted communities.
“I’m focused on leveraging historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds for critical projects in Arizona—like expanding the I-10, a key economic corridor in our state, and building I-11. But the current environmental review process is slow and cumbersome, delaying completion and wasting taxpayer dollars,” Stanton said. “Our bipartisan Interactive Federal Review Act will modernize and streamline the process while ensuring we stay true to the intent of NEPA.”
The Arizona Department of Transportation has already seen success with Interactive EIS for I-11, which started out using the traditional process and later transitioned to digital, and now uses the digital process to study the Sonoran Corridor project in Pima County.
“The success of the Interactive EIS [for I-11] and the number of views that it has received has clearly demonstrated its value to ADOT and the necessity to implement this kind of interactive tool for other studies,” Steven Olmsted, ADOT Program Delivery Manager, told infrastructure leader AECOM.
“This bipartisan bill will make sure transportation projects funded by our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are built on time by bringing the environmental review process into the 21stcentury. Arizona is already a leader on this innovative approach and our commonsense legislation would ensure that projects like widening I-10 and building I-11 move forward without costly and unnecessary delays,” Kelly said.
“People in Wyoming should not have to wait for the better part of a decade for improvements to the roads they rely on every day,” Lummis said. “We use streamlined technology for nearly every part of our lives, so it only makes sense that the environmental review process saves some paper and occurs online as well. I am grateful to Senator Kelly and Representative Johnson for their collaboration and leadership on this legislation."
“Environmental reviews are stuck in the 90s and continue to delay critical infrastructure projects for years at a time,” Johnson said. “The Interactive Federal Review Act brings NEPA reviews into the 21st century by prioritizing updated technologies and processes between agencies. This commonsense legislation ensures infrastructure projects stay on-time and on-task while also protecting the environment.”
The bill would direct the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to select a minimum of ten federal highway projects to demonstrate the use of interactive, digital, cloud-based platforms in carrying out the environmental analysis and community engagement processes required in FHWA projects.