Sarah Elfreth Challenges Dem And GOP Witnesses To Find Areas Of Agreement On NEPA Reform

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) spoke about NEPA reform.

Transcript

00:00The chair now recognizes Ms. Elfrith for five minutes of questioning.

00:04Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I've been sitting here listening because I spent six

00:10years at the Statehouse and I always engaged in committee hearings such as this as a meaningful

00:14opportunity to hear opposing viewpoints, try my best to find something in the middle. And

00:19so instead of doing anything performative today, I actually do want to challenge everybody

00:25the witness table to try to find some common ground here because as you've heard, everybody's

00:31heard today, I think we can all agree that the current process isn't always working for

00:35everybody including our constituents. But that does not mean that we should throw the baby

00:40out with the bathwater. And I think it is laughable if not ludicrous to believe that we can take

00:46a sledgehammer to the civil service the way that Doge and this administration have done

00:50and somehow expect greater efficiency. The math just doesn't math. So that being said,

00:57I'm going to challenge everybody at the table to find one thing you can agree on. And Mr.

01:03Mergen, you just began saying that you agree with Mr. Hergott that we need more data collection.

01:08I'm going to challenge you anything else that you think you can agree with from what you

01:11heard today.

01:12I think we all agree that there's a role for technology in all of this. I read Mr. Hergott's

01:18testimony. And he makes a point, and I appreciated that it was colorful. He said that this statute

01:24originated in 1969 and 1970, when documents were made available through reading rooms.

01:31And I'm old enough to remember that, right? But we now live in a world where we don't

01:36need reading rooms anymore. We can make this information available to the public. And that

01:41will improve decision making across the board. And you know, honestly, the agencies are moving

01:47in that direction. And I think that's something we can also agree on. The information needs

01:51to be public. It needs to be accessible to all of your constituents.

01:55Mr. Hergott, you're up.

02:00I would like to think that we could all agree that the system is broken, right? And I'd also

02:04like to agree that some of the hardest working, most valuable people are those line officers

02:08at the Army Corps of Engineers and the line officers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the ones that are

02:12still there, the ones that have been working to actually reform the program and push it

02:16through. And those people, many of which worked with me at the Permitting Institute and worked

02:20with me at CEQ and the Federal Permitting Council, is that they are the backbone of the entire

02:23system. And making things tougher on them is, it just slows down the entire process.

02:29I'm going to push you all a little bit more. We can all agree on the problems. I'm curious the

02:36solutions. I'm sorry, I heard you say that valuing the civil servants who are actually executing

02:40these permits are, is it something we need to get back to? Anything else?

02:46Mr. Well, they don't have access to the AI, the automation, the large language processing

02:50tools to process the 6,000 page applications. So you have all the third party contractors

02:54writing the applications sitting on their desk and they're expected to adjudicate something

02:58that they were not trained for. That is, that is an overbuilt, that is using modeling that

03:01they don't have the tools or the software for. And then we expect, and then we wonder why

03:06they're delayed. And so I think it's important for us to realize that you empower them and

03:10then you recognize where the where the choke points are. And it's that we have overmatched

03:15federal service employees that are being sent some of the most complicated projects in the

03:18world. It is not keystone anymore. It is something 10 times more expensive and more complicated.

03:24And you can't put that on a biologist desk at a field office and expect them to be able

03:29to push it through the system. Recognizing that those are where the problems are and not

03:33fossil fuels or the Trump memo or other things that we have fundamental process things that

03:38are going to transcend this presidency into the next one. And knowing that we have to

03:42fix the problem when we can't use politics to stop it or else the next IRA that happens

03:46is going to have the same problem it did before. I'm hearing sometimes greater investment from

03:50this government will lead to greater efficiency and the output. Mr. Campbell, anything kind to

03:55say about Mr. Morgan's testimony? So I do think there needs to be some changes. This, this rule

04:01law came out 50 over 50 years ago, and it's morphed itself into something much different

04:07that has caused issues with timing. And I think you can agree on that has been said today, maybe

04:13not, you didn't think you'd come to agree with. So, so I think I have faith in this body. And

04:19what I like is you're going to take it and modify it to put boundaries, put people in boxes. We do that

04:25all the time with our trading floors, with our fuel desks, we put them in a box. This is your box. And I

04:31think you need to modify that and make some changes. I do think some things need to be changed. Mr.

04:36Bowles with very few seconds left. I would just add that I think we could all agree to just the clarity

04:43of the process and just everybody get on the same page is what the process is. And I would hope that we

04:48are all here to to strive towards the balance that is necessary for important critical environmental

04:55protections with the ability to get big things done again in this country. And so I think we have a

05:00framework, Madam Chair, and I would love to build off of that framework moving forward. And with that, I yield.

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