{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stanton.house.gov/2022/11/stanton-kelly-bipartisan-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-modernize-environmental-review-process-for-critical-infrastructure", "Stanton, Kelly, Bipartisan Colleagues Introduce Bill to Modernize Environmental Review Process for Critical Infrastructure", "2022-11-21", "2022", "2022-11", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Greg Stanton", "S001211", "stanton.house.gov", "stanton", "https://stanton.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "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\u2014inefficient and opaque environmental review processes.\n\nThe 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.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m focused on leveraging historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds for critical projects in Arizona\u2014like 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,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cOur bipartisan Interactive Federal Review Act will modernize and streamline the process while ensuring we stay true to the intent of NEPA.\u201d\n\nThe 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.\n\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d Steven Olmsted, ADOT Program Delivery Manager, told infrastructure leader AECOM.\n\n\u201cThis 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,\u201d Kelly said.\n\n\u201cPeople in Wyoming should not have to wait for the better part of a decade for improvements to the roads they rely on every day,\u201d Lummis said. \u201cWe 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.\"\n\n\u201cEnvironmental reviews are stuck in the 90s and continue to delay critical infrastructure projects for years at a time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d\n\nThe 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.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:24:37Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stanton.house.gov/2022/11/stanton-kelly-bipartisan-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-modernize-environmental-review-process-for-critical-infrastructure"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.519555225968361, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}