If you thought summers in D.C. were quiet on Capitol Hill, meet 2025. With the One Big, Beautiful Bill now law, there may be an appetite to return to dealmaking on permitting reform. Committees in both the House and Senate will convene hearings focused on permitting reform, particularly related to energy infrastructure.
On Tuesday, House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) will hold a hearing titled, "Permitting Purgatory: Restoring Common Sense to NEPA Reviews." Also in the House, the "Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act" is on the floor this week. The bill would amend a range of provisions under the Clean Water Act, establishing time limits on legal challenges, restricting EPA's ability to override wetlands permits issued by the Army Corps, among other provisions designed to ease permitting for infrastructure projects.
And later today, House Republicans will act to strike down the Biden administration's land use management plans in Alaska, North Dakota and Montana. The Congressional Review Act resolutions will be taken up by the Rules Committee today, and votes on the House floor are expected later in the week. The Biden-era plans removed huge swaths of land from natural resource development.
And in the Senate, the Appropriations Committee will release its fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill on Thursday, but there is likely to be a great deal of activity between now and then, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Interior-EPA Appropriations Subcommittee, saying, "We got our work to do."
That's your Mining Minute for this morning, highlighting some of the mining-related matters that are on our minds here in Washington and beyond. Follow us on the National Mining Association's channels, as well as on Minerals Make Life and Count on Coal, for more on the latest news and policies impacting mining.
