II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1014
To ensure that certain permit approvals by the Environmental Protection
Agency have the force and effect of law, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH13, 2025
Mrs. M
OODY(for herself and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment
and Public Works
A BILL
To ensure that certain permit approvals by the Environ-
mental Protection Agency have the force and effect of
law, 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 ‘‘Maintaining Coopera-4
tive Permitting Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATE DISCHARGE OF DREDGED OR FILL MATE-6
RIAL PROGRAMS. 7
(a) W
ITHDRAWAL OF APPROVALWITHOUTCON-8
GRESSIONALAUTHORIZATIONPROHIBITED.— 9
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The permit programs de-1
scribed in paragraph (2) are ratified, approved, and 2
of full force and effect, and the Administrator of the 3
Environmental Protection Agency (referred to in 4
this section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) may not with-5
draw the approval of those permit programs, includ-6
ing through the process described in section 404(i) 7
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 8
U.S.C. 1344(i)), unless the withdrawal is expressly 9
authorized by an Act of Congress enacted after the 10
date of enactment of this Act. 11
(2) P
ERMIT PROGRAMS DESCRIBED .—The per-12
mit programs referred to in paragraph (1) are the 13
following State permit programs for the discharge of 14
dredged or fill material approved under section 404 15
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 16
U.S.C. 1344): 17
(A) The program of the State of Michigan, 18
approved in the notice of the Environmental 19
Protection Agency entitled ‘‘Michigan Depart-20
ment of Natural Resources Section 404 Permit 21
Program Approval’’ (49 Fed. Reg. 38947 (Oc-22
tober 2, 1984)) and as described in section 23
233.70 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations 24
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(including any updates to the program de-1
scribed in a successor Federal Register notice). 2
(B) The program of the State of New Jer-3
sey, approved in the final rule and notice of the 4
Environmental Protection Agency entitled 5
‘‘New Jersey Department of Environmental 6
Protection and Energy Section 404 Permit Pro-7
gram Approval’’ (59 Fed. Reg. 9933 (March 2, 8
1994)) and as described in section 233.71 of 9
title 40, Code of Federal Regulations (including 10
any updates to the program described in a suc-11
cessor Federal Register notice). 12
(C) The program of the State of Florida, 13
as described in the notice of the Environmental 14
Protection Agency entitled ‘‘EPA’s Approval of 15
Florida’s Clean Water Act Section 404 As-16
sumption Request’’ (85 Fed. Reg. 83553 (De-17
cember 22, 2020)) (including any updates to 18
the program described in a successor Federal 19
Register notice), including the Programmatic 20
Biological Opinion with Incidental Take State-21
ment associated with the program. 22
(3) P
ROGRAM TRANSITION PERIOD .—During 23
the 90-day period beginning on the date of enact-24
ment of this Act, the Secretary of the Army, acting 25
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through the Chief of Engineers (referred to in this 1
section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), and the State of Florida 2
may both issue permits authorized under the pro-3
gram described in paragraph (2)(C) into navigable 4
waters (as described in subsection 404(g)(1) of the 5
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 6
1344(g)(1))) within the jurisdiction of the State of 7
Florida. 8
(4) A
PPROVAL OF COMPARABLE STATE PRO -9
GRAMS.— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the Administrator 11
determines that a State program submitted 12
under subsection (g)(1) of section 404 of the 13
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 14
1344) is comparable to a State program de-15
scribed in any of subparagraphs (A) through 16
(C) of paragraph (2), the Administrator shall 17
make the determination described in subsection 18
(h)(2)(A) of that section with respect to that 19
program. 20
(B) N
OTIFICATION.—On making the deter-21
mination required under subparagraph (A), the 22
Administrator shall notify the Secretary and the 23
applicable State of that determination. 24
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(C) SUSPENSION.—On notification from 1
the Administrator under subparagraph (B) and 2
from a State that the State has begun to ad-3
minister a program approved pursuant to sub-4
paragraph (A), the Secretary shall suspend the 5
issuance of permits under subsections (a) and 6
(e) of section 404 of the Federal Water Pollu-7
tion Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) for activities 8
with respect to which a permit may be issued 9
by the State under that program. 10
(b) C
LARIFICATION OFPROCESS.—Section 404(h) of 11
the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 12
1344(h)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(6) N
OT A RULE OR REGULATION .—The ap-14
proval of a State permit program under this section 15
shall not be considered to be a rule or regulation.’’. 16
Æ
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