79 House Democrats express concern over GOP permitting reform as debt limit talks continue

Nearly 80 House Democrats wrote a letter expressing concern about tying pieces of a Republican-led permitting reform package to must-pass legislation amid efforts to get a permitting reform deal into a compromise debt limit bill. 

In a new letter to President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries  (D-N.Y.), the 79 lawmakers did not mention the debt limit directly. But, they warned broadly about attaching a Republican energy bill known as H.R.1 or other bills with the potential to harm the environment to “must-pass” legislation. 

“To protect American communities and our environment from undue harm, we strongly urge you to oppose ongoing attempts to attach H.R. 1 or any other extreme proposals that gut our bedrock environmental and public laws to must-pass legislation,” they wrote in the letter released on Friday. 

Permitting reform refers to efforts to speed up approvals of energy or other infrastructure projects amid complaints that the current process is too lengthy. 

The issue has divided Democrats, some of whom argue that a faster process is needed to build out low-carbon energy in the fight against climate change, but others warn that efforts to speed environmental reviews could harm nearby communities by limiting their input.

Democrats who have been on both sides of the issue, however, signed onto the new letter. It was led by: Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.).

Grijalva led opposition to a permitting reform pushed last year by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). However, Casten has said in the past that there was “more good than bad” in the bill. 

Yet, the group of lawmakers on Friday’s letter came together to put forward a set of four principles they’d like to see in a push to speed the nation’s infrastructure projects: a focus on implementing, rather than “gutting,” environmental law, full funding for federal offices that complete environmental reviews, a buildout for new electricity transmission infrastructure and rejecting efforts to “ hold must-pass legislation hostage.”

It’s not clear how much power the coalition of lawmakers will have, especially given that they are the minority in the House. However, permitting reform efforts will also need to garner 60 votes in the Senate, which could be difficult to achieve.