Congresswoman Celeste Maloy (R-UT) wants to reduce the time it takes for the federal permitting process and to that end she has introduced legislation to achieve that goal. Maloy joined us on the radio today to discuss the Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement, or FREE Act.

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Dr. T
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“The Free Act is an attempt to streamline a lot of this permitting and it's something that impacts just about everything we do. I'm not sure most people realize that, but we have a lot of federal land in this state, mostly federal land. And so we end up having to go through federal processes to do just mundane, routine things that people and local governments have to do. But also the federal government is just so involved in funding things and regulating things that just about anything government does, they've got to go through a federal process and those processes take way too long,” Maloy told us.

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The aim of the bill is to have federal agencies move to a “permit by rule” process. Permit by rule is a process where an applicant certifies compliance with pre-established criteria to obtain a permit. This approach shifts the responsibility of the applicant proving compliance to the government, allowing for automatic permit approval unless the agency identifies that an applicant had not made proper certifications within a specified period. The permit by rule system is designed to reduce bureaucratic delays, minimize costs, and enhance predictability in the permitting process.

“What we're asking them (federal agencies) to do is look at all the permits they issue and figure out which ones would be good for permit by rule. And it's not really a complicated concept. It's what most local governments do,” Maloy said.

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You can learn more about the FREE Act here. Maloy says the legislation is in line for her view of what government should be. “I say all the time, we need smaller, more accountable government and this is an attempt to get both smaller and more accountable government.” 

Maloy also spent time visiting with us about her efforts to bring the Antiquities Act back to more control from congress, and you can listen to our entire discussion with the congresswoman below.

 

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