The House on Thursday approved the latest Republican plan to jumpstart job creation — a bill that would set hard deadlines on environmental reviews that can delay construction projects for years.

Members passed the Responsibly and Professionally Invigorating Development Act, or the RAPID Act, in a 229-179 vote.

Like so many other deregulatory bills, several Democrats spoke against it but 12 ended up voting for the bill with Republicans.

The bill is an answer to the Republican complaint that environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can sometimes take years, and sometimes more than a decade. In 2012, the House heard testimony noting that the Hoover Dam was built in five years, and the Empire State Building was built in about 13 months — times that are shorter than the duration of some NEPA reviews.

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