Permitting Innovation Center
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Permitting Innovation Center

The Council on Environmental Quality’s Permitting Innovation Center coordinates Federal agency implementation of the Presidential Memorandum on Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century. The Permitting Innovation Center developed the Permitting Technology Action Plan and accompanying initial data and technology standard for permit applications and the National Environmental Policy Act. The Permitting Innovation Center works with the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services and other Federal agencies to design and test prototype software systems, including for case management systems, application submission and tracking portals, automation of application and review processes, data exchange between agency systems, and acceleration of complex reviews.

Policy and Purpose

The Presidential Memorandum on Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century directed Federal departments and agencies to make maximum use of technology in environmental review and permitting processes for infrastructure projects, to:

  • Eliminate the use of paper-based application and review processes;
  • Accelerate the processing time for projects, with little to no impact on quality of review;
  • Reduce the length and increase the accessibility of documents related to permit applications;
  • Reduce duplicative data submissions;
  • Increase the interagency use of existing analyses including analyses from other agencies relevant to different permit applications for the same projects;
  • Eliminate friction in coordination between agencies in the environmental review and permitting processes;
  • Improve the transparency and predictability of project permitting schedules;
  • Ensure agency legal departments have the support, funding, and technology to provide the most expeditious and best defense of challenged environmental documents and permit decisions;
  • Streamline the overall environmental review and permitting process at the Federal level, with the goal of speeding data gathering and decision-making that can improve timeliness for State, local and tribal decision-making as well; and
  • Maintain a readily available source of information that may be relevant to judicial review of any permits.

permitting.innovation.gov

An official website of the General Services Administration

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