I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 689
To require each agency to evaluate the permitting system of the agency,
to consider whether permitting by rule could replace that system, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Ms. M
ALOY(for herself, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. MOOREof Utah, Mr. VALADAO,
Mr. A
RRINGTON, Mr. OWENS, Mr. PFLUGER, Mr. CISCOMANI, Mr.
S
TAUBER, Mrs. FISCHBACH, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Mr. COLLINS, Mr.
M
OYLAN, Mr. YAKYM, Mr. FONG, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. FULCHER, and Mr.
K
ENNEDYof Utah) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
To require each agency to evaluate the permitting system
of the agency, to consider whether permitting by rule
could replace that system, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Full Responsibility and 4
Expedited Enforcement Act’’ or the ‘‘FREE Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) Agencies near unanimously operate under a 1
permitting system that gives agencies broad discre-2
tion and requires the Government to review each 3
permitting application. 4
(2) Agencies near unanimously operate under a 5
permitting system that either does not have time 6
constraints, or has time constraints that agencies do 7
not follow. 8
(3) The combination of broad discretion and the 9
lack of time constraints often results in a tedious, 10
time consuming, and often expensive permitting sys-11
tem for the Government and applicants. Moreover, 12
agencies will sometimes use their discretion and the 13
time consuming nature of permitting to stall or dis-14
courage permit issuance. 15
(4) There is a compelling interest in avoiding 16
unnecessary delay and expense in Federal permit-17
ting. 18
(5) Permit by rule is a process that seeks to 19
overcome agency delay and the cumbersome cost of 20
agency review to Government and private interests. 21
(6) Permit by rule is a process of permitting 22
that includes specific written standards for obtaining 23
a permit, a simple requirement for an applicant to 24
certify compliance with each of the standards, and 25
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a streamlined approval process with a prompt dead-1
line for agency action on applications that only al-2
lows the Government to verify that all conditions are 3
met. The Government retains the right and responsi-4
bility to audit and enforce compliance with permit-5
ting requirements. Focusing upon permittees who 6
are violating the law or standards rather than 7
gatekeeping will make permitting more efficient 8
while allowing an agency to protect the compelling 9
interests for which permitting systems are intended. 10
SEC. 3. PERMITTING BY RULE. 11
(a) R
EPORT TOCONGRESSREQUIRED.— 12
(1) S
UBMISSION OF REPORT .—Not later than 13
240 days after the date of the enactment of this sec-14
tion, the head of each agency shall submit to Con-15
gress, including any committee of Congress with ju-16
risdiction over permits for that agency, and the 17
Comptroller General a report on the following: 18
(A) A list and description of each type of 19
permit issued by the agency. 20
(B) The statutory and regulatory require-21
ments for obtaining each such type of permit. 22
(C) For each type of permit issued by the 23
agency, a specific description of each step the 24
agency follows to review a permit application. 25
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(D) For each type of permit issued by the 1
agency, an estimate of the time the agency typi-2
cally takes to review an application, beginning 3
on the date on which an application is sub-4
mitted and ending on the date on which a suc-5
cessful application is granted. 6
(E) For each type of permit issued by the 7
agency, a description of each action typically 8
taken for a case in which an application is 9
found not to meet statutory or regulatory re-10
quirements for the issuance of a permit. 11
(F) A list of primary interests that each 12
type of permit is intended to foster or protect. 13
(G) An individual determination for each 14
type of permit issued by the agency of whether 15
permitting by rule could in whole or in part re-16
place the current system for issuing the type of 17
permit. 18
(H) For each type of permit issued by the 19
agency for which permitting by rule could in 20
whole or in part replace the current system for 21
issuing the type of permit, an identification of 22
any administrative or other practical challenges 23
the head of the agency anticipates in 24
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transitioning to permitting by rule for the type 1
of permit. 2
(I) An identification of each type of permit 3
for which the head of the agency has deter-4
mined the agency could not reasonably, in 5
whole or in part, issue permits by rule under 6
current facts and circumstances, describing 7
with particularity each reason why permitting 8
by rule could not reasonably be used for any 9
such permit and what legal or practical meas-10
ures could be pursued to eliminate or mitigate 11
said reason. 12
(2) P
UBLIC COMMENT.—In preparing the re-13
port required pursuant to paragraph (1), the head of 14
an agency may solicit and consider public comment 15
regarding the report. 16
(3) E
XTENSION OF SUBMISSION DEADLINE .—In 17
the case that the head of an agency is not able to 18
submit the report required pursuant to paragraph 19
(1), the deadline to submit the report shall be ex-20
tended by an additional 90 days if the head of the 21
agency submits to Congress, including any com-22
mittee of Congress with jurisdiction over permits for 23
that agency, and the Comptroller General a notifica-24
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tion of the intended extension of the deadline under 1
this paragraph. 2
(4) A
TTORNEY FEES.—If the head of an agency 3
does not file the report required pursuant to para-4
graph (1) by the applicable deadline under this sub-5
section, the agency shall pay, from any funds made 6
available to the agency by appropriation or other-7
wise, the attorney fees and costs of an applicant for 8
a claim filed by the applicant for the failure or delay 9
of the agency to take action with respect to an appli-10
cation for a permit submitted to the agency by the 11
applicant if— 12
(A) the claim is filed against the agency in 13
an appropriate United States district court dur-14
ing the period beginning on the expiration of 15
the applicable deadline under this subsection 16
and ending on the date on which the agency 17
files the report; 18
(B) the court determines that the agency 19
unreasonably delayed such action; and 20
(C) the applicant prevails in the claim. 21
(b) E
STABLISHMENT OF PROCESSES FOR PERMIT-22
TING BYRULE.— 23
(1) A
PPLICATION FOR AND APPROVAL OF PER -24
MITS.—Not later than 12 months after the date on 25
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which the report is submitted pursuant to subsection 1
(a), for each type of permit issued by the agency for 2
which the head of the agency determined under sub-3
section (a)(1)(G) that permitting by rule could in 4
whole or in part replace the current system for 5
issuing the type of permit, the head of each agency 6
shall establish by rule a permitting by rule applica-7
tion process that does the following: 8
(A) Specifies in writing each requirement 9
and substantive standard that must be certified 10
to be met by an applicant who files an applica-11
tion to qualify for a permit under permitting by 12
rule. 13
(B) Allows an applicant to file an applica-14
tion that contains only each required certifi-15
cation described in subparagraph (A) and any 16
supporting documentation the applicant chooses 17
to submit in support of each such certification. 18
(C) Deems an application for a permit 19
under permitting by rule granted if— 20
(i) the application contains each cer-21
tification described in subparagraph (A); 22
and 23
(ii) a period of 180 days after the 24
date on which the completed application 25
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was submitted has expired and the head of 1
the agency has not otherwise approved or 2
disapproved the application. 3
(2) C
ORRECTION OF APPLICATION .—The head 4
of an agency shall contact an applicant within 7 5
days after the date on which an application is sub-6
mitted under paragraph (1) if any required certifi-7
cation is missing from the application. 8
(3) A
UDIT OF APPLICATION.—The head of an 9
agency may audit an application for a permit under 10
permitting by rule and verify certifications of compli-11
ance with requirements and substantive standards 12
for permitting by rule and may include reasonable 13
requests for documentation. 14
(4) D
ISAPPROVAL OF APPLICATION AND EN -15
FORCEMENT.— 16
(A) R
EASON FOR DISAPPROVAL .—The 17
head of an agency may only disapprove an ap-18
plication submitted for a permit under permit-19
ting by rule if the head of the agency identifies 20
a requirement or substantive standard described 21
in paragraph (1)(A) that was not met by the 22
application, informs the applicant of how to cor-23
rect the application, provides a reasonable op-24
portunity for the applicant to make such correc-25
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tion before the final action of the agency on the 1
application, and states with particularity in any 2
final action disapproving the application the 3
facts and reasoning for such denial. 4
(B) A
UDIT OF COMPLIANCE AND EN -5
FORCEMENT FOLLOWING GRANT OF A PERMIT 6
UNDER PERMITTING BY RULE .— 7
(i) A
UDIT.—The head of an agency 8
may audit a permit granted under permit-9
ting by rule and verify compliance with re-10
quirements and substantive standards for 11
permitting by rule, which may include rea-12
sonable requests for documentation. 13
(ii) E
NFORCEMENT.—The head of an 14
agency may require corrective action, sus-15
pend, or revoke a permit granted under 16
permitting by rule at any time if the head 17
of the agency finds that a requirement or 18
substantive standard under permitting by 19
rule is not being met by the recipient of 20
the permit. 21
(C) D
IRECT APPEAL.—An applicant whose 22
application for a permit under permitting by 23
rule is disapproved, of whom corrective action is 24
required under a permit granted under permit-25
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ting by rule, or whose permit granted under 1
permitting by rule is suspended or revoked may 2
appeal such disapproval, corrective action, sus-3
pension, or revocation in an appropriate United 4
States district court. 5
(D) B
URDEN OF PROOF .—In an appeal 6
under subparagraph (C), the agency shall bear 7
the burden of proof to show that an application 8
was lawfully disapproved or that the agency 9
lawfully required corrective action or suspended 10
or revoked a permit. 11
(E) A
TTORNEY FEES.—If the court finds 12
for the applicant or permit holder under this 13
paragraph and that the agency was not sub-14
stantially justified in disapproving, requiring 15
corrective action under, suspending, or revoking 16
a permit, the agency shall pay the attorney fees 17
and costs of the applicant from any funds made 18
available to the agency by appropriation or oth-19
erwise. 20
(c) C
ONGRESSIONALOVERSIGHT.—Not later than 2 21
years after the date on which the report is submitted pur-22
suant to subsection (a), the head of each agency shall sub-23
mit to Congress a report on the implementation by the 24
agency of permitting by rule for each type of permit issued 25
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by the agency for which the head of the agency determined 1
under subsection (a)(1)(G) that permitting by rule could 2
in whole or in part replace the current system for issuing 3
the type of permit. 4
(d) C
ONCURRENT USE OFPREVIOUSPERMITTING 5
S
YSTEM.—If the head of the agency determines in the re-6
port submitted pursuant to subsection (a) that the permit-7
ting system in effect at the agency before the date of the 8
enactment of this Act for any type of permit provides 9
value that permitting by rule does not, but that permitting 10
by rule could in whole or in part replace the current sys-11
tem for issuing the type of permit, the head of the agency 12
may maintain for that type of permit both the permitting 13
system previously in effect and permitting by rule, and 14
the applicant may choose which system to use to apply 15
for a permit of that type from the agency. 16
(e) GAO R
EPORTS.— 17
(1) R
EPORT ON ACCURACY OF AGENCY RE -18
PORTS.—Not later than 90 days after the expiration 19
of the deadline to submit the reports required under 20
subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall submit 21
to Congress a report on the completeness and accu-22
racy of the reports, including the recommendations 23
of the Comptroller General concerning legal or prac-24
tical measures that could be pursued to eliminate or 25
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mitigate any legal or practical challenges to the 1
transition by agencies to permitting by rule for any 2
type of permit. 3
(2) R
EPORT ON PROGRESS BY AGENCIES .—Not 4
later than 180 days after submission by the agencies 5
of the reports required under subsection (c), the 6
Comptroller General shall submit to Congress a re-7
port on the progress by agencies in the implementa-8
tion of this Act, including any recommendation con-9
cerning legal or practical measures that could be 10
pursued to eliminate or mitigate any remaining legal 11
or practical challenges to the transition by agencies 12
to issuance of permits under permitting by rule for 13
any type of permit. 14
(3) S
UPPLEMENTS TO THE REPORTS .—The 15
Comptroller General may submit supplements to the 16
report described in paragraph (1) or (2) with regard 17
to a report submitted by the head of an agency after 18
the Comptroller General submits the report required 19
pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2). 20
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 21
(1) A
GENCY; RULE.—The terms ‘‘agency’’ and 22
‘‘rule’’ have the meaning given those terms in sec-23
tion 551 of title 5, United States Code. 24
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(2) COMPLETED APPLICATION .—The term 1
‘‘completed application’’ means an application sub-2
mitted under subsection (b) that contains certifi-3
cations that the applicant meets each requirement 4
and substantive standard specified under subsection 5
(b)(1)(A). 6
(3) P
ERMITTING BY RULE.—The term ‘‘permit-7
ting by rule’’ means the application process that an 8
agency establishes by rule for granting a certain 9
type of permit described in subsection (b). 10
(4) S
UBSTANTIVE STANDARD .—The term ‘‘sub-11
stantive standard’’ means all qualities, statuses, ac-12
tions, benchmarks, measurements, or other written 13
descriptions that would qualify a party to perform 14
the permitted action. 15
Æ
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