Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse issued a stark warning Wednesday: Dems won't agree to a permitting overhaul unless President Trump relents on the funding freeze and other "lawless" violations of congressional authority.
Why it matters: It's a sign of how the bipartisan push to rewrite environmental review processes could fall apart again this year, this time for a new set of political reasons.
Driving the news: Whitehouse, Environment and Public Works' ranking member, said during a hearing on permitting that until Trump changes course, "we can have zero confidence that any legislative compromise on permitting reform will be executed lawfully."
- "Democrats will not agree to any permitting reform unless and until the Trump administration ends its lawless disregard for congressional authority and judicial orders," he said.
- The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The big picture: The hearing kick-started bipartisan talks again after negotiations fell apart in disputes over the National Environmental Policy Act at the end of last year.
- EPW Chair Shelley Moore Capito left the hearing record open until March 21, with the goal of crafting a bipartisan proposal that addresses NEPA and possibly the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws.
- "The legislation that we develop must help all types of projects, not just politically favored projects or projects that will support the infrastructure needs of some Americans but not others," she said during the hearing.
- Whitehouse added that the pair have already engaged with Senate Energy and Natural Resources and House Natural Resources, which would share jurisdiction on any broad permitting deal.
Zoom in: NEPA will again be the centerpiece.
- Witnesses endorsed the kind of changes under discussion late last year, namely a 150-day statute of limitations on judicial challenges to final permits.
- Whitehouse floated the idea of creating a requirement for project developers to tell the government what they've done to engage locals and other industries affected by major projects before they file for a permit.
Yes, but: Trump aside, Democrats have to date been unwilling to change the Clean Water Act, let alone the Endangered Species and Clean Air acts.
- Republicans and witnesses brought up the CWA a number of times Wednesday. They argued that agencies haven't properly responded to the Sackett Supreme Court case limiting how the government regulates wetlands under the law.
- "I think we know where some of the fault lines are, but I'm not willing to pre-negotiate in the press," Whitehouse told Axios when asked about the CWA.
Finding a deal on transmission policy could also again be a challenge again, with Democrats pushing to give FERC more authority over siting and permitting to treat them more like interstate natural gas pipelines.
- The Manchin-Barrasso bill last year struck a delicate balance on the issue, but it wasn't clear that House Republicans would have accepted it, even if talks hadn't imploded on NEPA.
- Some Republicans are hesitant to do anything on that issue that could infringe on the authority of state regulators.
- "The siting for transmission lines should be the same as it is for a water pipeline or any other linear infrastructure, and I think we can do that," Sen. Kevin Cramer said during the hearing. "But we do have to recognize those state regulators."
The bottom line: As Whitehouse put it, a permitting bill is "the elusive white whale."
