{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/mccaskill-business-leaders-laud-permit-streamlining", "McCaskill, business leaders laud permit streamlining", "2015-12-10", "2015", "2015-12", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Claire McCaskill", "M001170", "www.mccaskill.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "McCaskill, business leaders laud permit streamlining \r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Thursday, December 10, 2015\r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            \r\n                  \r\n                    By:\r\n                    Ken Newton\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            \r\nBig infrastructure projects can suffer big delays in the federal permitting process, and bigger costs follow.\r\n\r\n\r\nHigher-ups of some of the nations top business groups joined a Missouri senator on Thursday to celebrate a cutting of red tape for getting permits on major construction work.\r\n\r\n\r\nProvisions of the Federal Permitting Improvement Act got included in the long-term Highway Bill signed into law last week. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, worked for years to move the measure to passage.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMcCaskill and the business leaders agreed that the permitting environment for projects larger than $200 million  work involving pipelines, aviation, energy and broadband Internet, among others  had become too unwieldy and time-consuming.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThere is no excuse for a bureaucratic nightmare when we are trying to invest in infrastructure in this country, the senator said during a conference call.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt had gotten to the point that it was impossible for large projects to move in a timely basis, which means it costs more money. We all pay for that, even the private projects.\r\n\r\n\r\nBill Kovacs, a senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called the measure the first major reform to the environmental review process since it was created in 1969. In addition, he said, Its a really simple solution to an extraordinarily complex problem.\r\n\r\n\r\nKovacs said the law puts somebody in charge of projects, creates an inventory of the work and sets a schedule for review completion. The lead agency in permitting coordinates with other agencies, and a requirement calls for concurrent review of project steps rather than sequential reviews.\r\n\r\n\r\nFurther, he said, the law allows for equivalent state documents to be used in the review process, avoiding duplication and wasted time, and establishes a hastened procedure for resolving disputes.\r\n\r\n\r\nMcCaskill said her favorite feature in the bill was creation of a project dashboard, which allows the public to keep track of the status of work and makes it difficult for people to duck responsibility for delays.\r\n\r\n\r\nThis is something I think we like to major in, in my state, and thats common sense, she said.\r\n\r\n\r\nDan Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called the streamlined permitting process a real breath of fresh air for infrastructure and said it would lead to more jobs for Americans.\r\n\r\n\r\nThis means that infrastructure development will be simplified, it will be expedited and with the focused management of it ... it will help in a great way employ a lot of Missourians, he said on the conference call.\r\n\r\n            \r\n             \r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/mccaskill-business-leaders-laud-permit-streamlining"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0160740930587053, "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"}