Mr. Chairman, When my good friend from Oregon and I started discussing this issue back in 1997, we had two major goals. First, we wanted to eliminate unnecessary delays to projects which waste millions of dollars of tax payers' money. Second, we wanted to eliminate duplicative review at the state and federal levels. Many states including Oregon and Florida have very comprehensive environmental review for projects, and states should be rewarded at the federal level by not being forced to repeat the process.
Senator Wyden and I then began brainstorming with the Administration, specifically the U. S. Department of Transportation and the Council on Environmental Quality, to develop a set of proposals which would establish partnerships with the federal agencies, recognize the good work of states, and enact streamlining measures in the environmental approval process. If all the affected parties involved in reviewing a proposed transportation project are able to participate at the earliest stages of a project, unnecessary delays can be avoided. If the federal permitting agencies can come to the table at the beginning, they will be able to help identify "fatal flaws" in a transportation plan. This would mean the state and local communities would have the opportunity to rework a project without spending many years and millions of dollars on design and engineering only to be told an endangered species is involved.
With the passage of TEA-21, we achieved a first step toward meeting our goal for streamlining. The TEA-21 debate allowed everyone to talk about the project delivery process and how we can all make the system better.
Mr. Chairman, states are now trying to accomplish some of the goals that we envisioned in TEA-21 . My State of Florida has already begun speaking with the agencies about developing partnerships so they can be involved in our projects from the beginning. I would like to share one example of the "partnering approach":
EXAMPLE - Suncoast Parkway: Last year, construction began on the Suncoast Parkway, a 42-mile tolled expressway, which is being constructed primarily through undeveloped portions of Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando Counties. Final design of the project required permit and mitigation approvals from the US Army Corps of Engineers, US Environmental Protection Agency, Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, as well as concurrence reviews from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Permitting and mitigation approvals of the final design of a project usually paces the production schedule. This is due to not having the required design detail, needed to prepare the permit applications, until the plans are at least 60% complete. It was believed that the completeness of permit applications and the efficiency of agency reviews could be improved with early coordination, improved communication and a better understanding of process and regulatory requirements. These goals were the catalyst that lead FDOT to pursue an interagency/design consultant partnering charter.
The initial partnering orientation meeting was held with FDOT's representatives and the environmental regulatory and resource agency' representatives to establish the partnering concept and initiate the team building process. The design consultants were brought into the process later, as their contracts were executed.
My state has seen many clear advantages to this combined partnering team. Difficult elements of permitting, mitigation, protected species coordination, wetland avoidance and minimization design, wildlife issues and bike trails all moved forward and were enhanced by the level of cooperation and communication that was fostered by the partnering process.
Even with the partnering process in place, unforeseen permitting delays still occurred. These permit challenges were positively resolved. The resolution process was favorably influenced by the cooperation and knowledgeable assistance of partnering members who were able to share and apply the project insight gained over several years of hands on effort.
Mr. Chairman, I share this example with you to highlight that early involvement helps project delivery and even if permitting problems occur, if the parties involved have been working as partners, a solution is much quicker and easier to achieve.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to see the "Final Draft" version of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) developed by the Administration. Having one MOU signed by all the agencies involved in project approval is a vital first step to achieve streamlining. I believe the Administration should look at how states can be rewarded for doing exceptional environmental review at the state level, and trying to not make them subject to a duplicative review at the federal level. USDOT should establish a pilot process which would allow states to develop their own partnering program with federal and state agencies. The pilot state would then be able to share their experiences with other states to help identify what approach may be successful. Finally, Some form of performance measurement must be developed so we may know if meaningful improvements have been achieved. Possibly a stakeholder satisfaction survey or other means of ensuring that we don't wind up with more complexity rather than true streamlining.
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to hearing the testimony from today's witnesses, and working with them as partners to achieve a more efficient system of project delivery.