[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7023 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7023

  To amend section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
codify certain regulatory provisions relating to nationwide permits for 
           dredged or fill material, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 17, 2024

  Mr. Rouzer introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
codify certain regulatory provisions relating to nationwide permits for 
           dredged or fill material, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Nationwide Permitting Improvement 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PERMITS FOR DREDGED OR FILL MATERIAL.

    (a) In General.--Section 404(e) of the Federal Water Pollution 
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(e)(1) In carrying'' and inserting the 
        following:
    ``(e) General Permits on State, Regional, or Nationwide Basis.--
            ``(1) Permits authorized.--In carrying'';
            (2) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by striking ``(2) No general'' and inserting 
                the following:
            ``(2) Term.--No general''; and
                    (B) by striking ``five years'' and inserting ``ten 
                years''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Considerations.--In determining the environmental 
        effects of an activity under paragraph (1) or (2), the 
        Secretary shall consider only the effects of any discharge of 
        dredged or fill material resulting from such activity.
            ``(4) Nationwide permits for linear infrastructure 
        projects.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of this section, the Secretary shall maintain 
                a general permit on a nationwide basis for linear 
                infrastructure projects that do not result in the loss 
                of greater than \1/2\-acre of waters of the United 
                States for each single and complete project (as defined 
                in section 330.2 of title 33, Code of Federal 
                Regulations (as in effect on the date of enactment of 
                this paragraph)).
                    ``(B) Definition of linear infrastructure 
                project.--In this paragraph, the term `linear 
                infrastructure project' means a project to carry out 
                any activity required for the construction, expansion, 
                maintenance, modification, or removal of infrastructure 
                and associated facility for the transmission from a 
                point of origin to a terminal point of communications 
                or electricity or the transportation from a point of 
                origin to a terminal point of people, water, 
                wastewater, carbon dioxide, or fuel or hydrocarbons (in 
                the form of a liquid, liquescent, gaseous, or slurry 
                substance or supercritical fluid), including oil and 
                gas pipeline facilities.
            ``(5) Reissuance of nationwide permits.--In determining 
        whether to reissue a general permit issued under this 
        subsection on a nationwide basis--
                    ``(A) no consultation with an applicable State 
                pursuant to section 6(a) of the Endangered Species Act 
                of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1535(a)) is required;
                    ``(B) no consultation with a Federal agency 
                pursuant to section 7(a)(2) of such Act (16 U.S.C. 
                1536(a)(2)) is required; and
                    ``(C) the requirements of section 102(2)(C) of the 
                National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 
                4332(2)(C)) shall be satisfied by preparing an 
                environmental assessment with respect to such general 
                permit.''.
    (b) Administration of Nationwide Permit Program.--In carrying out 
section 404(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1344), the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of 
Engineers, may not finalize or implement any modification to--
            (1) general condition 15 (relating to single and complete 
        projects), as included in the final rule titled ``Reissuance 
        and Modification of Nationwide Permits'' and published on 
        January 13, 2021, by the Department of the Army, Corps of 
        Engineers (86 Fed. Reg. 2868);
            (2) the definition of single and complete linear project, 
        as included in such final rule (86 Fed. Reg. 2877); or
            (3) the definition of single and complete project, as 
        included in section 330.2 of title 33, Code of Federal 
        Regulations (as in effect on the date of enactment of this 
        Act).
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