While much of the national media focus in recent months has been on Russia, North Korean nuclear threats and Capitol Hill battles over Obamacare, federal agencies have been busy advancing President Donald Trump’s promise to alleviate “unnecessary burdens placed on the American people.” The president’s vision to tackle aging American infrastructure is also starting to take shape. This is encouraging news, since the Family Farm Alliance has been clamoring for this type of action for years.

Agencies whose actions impact Western water users are seeking public input on how they can best live up to Trump’s promise. Last February, within days of his inauguration, President Trump signed Executive Order 13777, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people. The U.S. Department of the Interior recently published a Federal Register notice seeking ideas from the public on this topic. Interior houses several agencies with jurisdiction over activities that impact Western producers, including the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey.

The Trump administration is also looking at ways to cut government red tape when it comes to permitting new infrastructure projects. President Trump in August signed the EO “Establishing Discipline and Accountability” in the environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects. The Trump administration echoed the claims made by many of us in business and industry who believe the current system for completing environmental reviews is fragmented, inefficient and unpredictable. According to the National Association of Environmental Professionals, a single agency can take 3.7 to five years, on average, to complete an environmental review.

The White House says the EO will make the environmental and permitting processes needed for major infrastructure projects more efficient and effective. The order establishes a two-year goal to process environmental documents for major infrastructure projects.

The EO includes many of the concepts from H.R. 1654, authored by Tom McClintock, R-Calif., and S. 677, authored by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., which streamline the environmental permitting process associated with building new water storage projects. Family Farm Alliance member Tom Davis, from Arizona, testified in support of S. 677 in June before a Senate subcommittee.

Reform at work
Back on the regulatory reform front, the Family Farm Alliance — with our water-focused mission — is currently preparing letters for Reclamation, USFWS and USGS. We’ve already sent similar letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. NOAA Fisheries published a request in the Federal Register that specifically calls out existing regulations under the Endangered Species Act as a potential subject for comment. Many Western producers face significant regulatory- and policy-related challenges, brought on by federal agency implementation of environmental laws like the ESA; destructive tactics employed by litigious, antifarming activists; and a myriad of new rules and policies promulgated in the last decade.

It’s refreshing to have an opportunity to start trimming chapters, rather than adding new ones to a regulatory playbook that is already much too big, top-down and daunting.

The opinions of this author are not necessarily those of Farm Progress.

Keppen is executive director of the Family Farm Alliance