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Lawmakers are facing a narrow window to achieve their remaining policy goals during the lame duck session. Must-pass legislation such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a measure to continue funding the federal government present opportunities for lawmakers to attempt to secure passage of their individual priorities.
One such priority is the permitting reform that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia pushed for earlier this year. That proposal would expedite permitting processes by imposing deadlines on agencies to complete environmental reviews. Research shows that permitting delays generally result from either a legitimate need for additional analysis or from a lack of funding and staff capacity at the agencies—neither of which would be solved by imposing hard deadlines. Nevertheless, and despite failing to secure the necessary support to pass the measure earlier this year, Manchin may introduce it again during the lame duck session.
Other more promising priorities may also advance in the next few weeks, including bonding reform. A November 2021 report by the Department of the Interior recommended several reforms to the federal oil and gas program. Many of these reforms were included in the Inflation Reduction Act which was signed into law in August of this year, and now await the initiation of rulemaking to implement the changes mandated by the law. But bonding reform was not included, and this important loose end could become a priority for lawmakers to tie up.
However, these and other priorities may all be overshadowed by a desire to confirm as many judicial and administration nominees as possible. Laura Daniel-Davis, President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Department of the Interior, was first nominated in June 2021 and is still awaiting a final confirmation vote. Daniel-Davis is just one of many nominees whose confirmations have been caught up in ongoing congressional gridlock, and lawmakers may be eager to work through this backlog in the remaining days of the current congress.
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...we have to manage as though this drought is going to last, or that the aridification of the Colorado River Basin is permanent.”
