House Uses “Permitting Reform” to Give Polluters Permission to Contaminate our Water Resources

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3898, the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act. The bill would significantly weaken several pollution controls in the Clean Water Act, shield polluters from accountability, and hamper the ability of states and Tribal governments to protect their water resources from well-documented pollution sources like the oil and gas industry. The PERMIT Act is the latest salvo in “permitting reform” efforts and one of several deregulatory actions from Congress aimed at weakening bedrock environmental statutes in favor of expediting permit approvals.  

After the vote, Earthjustice Action Senior Legislative Counsel Julián Gonzalez issued the following statement:   

“Once again, Congress is putting the health of our families and communities at risk, allowing corporate polluters to recklessly contaminate our water while making it more difficult to hold them accountable in court. Coupled with recent actions by Trump’s EPA to weaken federal water protections, this bill will only result in more dangerous contaminants like forever chemicals and mercury in our water, and less ability for people who care about clean drinking water and clean waterways to hold them accountable. This is the Republican ‘permitting reform’ agenda: Abundant profits for corporations amassed at the cost of our clean water and health.”