IFP just spent the last 36 hours poring over the new Manager’s Amendment to the permitting bill. We went through 27 criticisms of the permit-certainty provisions and over a dozen concerns about historic preservation. The result is 70 pages of memos showing how the amendment resolves every major permit certainty issue we’ve seen raised and takes significant steps to respond to Tribes on historic preservation review: 1. A 32-page memo analyzing and responding to criticisms of the project certainty provisions: 2. A 4-page memo explaining how the Manager’s Amendment resolves project certainty concerns: 3. A 5-page memo explaining why BAAJA does not prevent the revocation of illegally issued permits: 4. A 3-page memo summarizing historic preservation changes in the manager's amendment and covering how BAAJA protects Tribal consultation from executive action: 5. A 25-page memo explaining how Tribal consultation works in BAAJA, exploring concerns and the Manager's changes in depth: Not everyone will be happy. If your goal is stopping energy, transit, or housing projects on procedural technicalities, this isn’t the bill for you (although projects that violate substantive environmental law can still be stopped, just not over paperwork violations). But if your goal is energy affordability and stopping climate change, this is a good bill, and a better bill than it was last week. All of our permitting reform work can be found here:

Underappreciated reason fed enviro review is bad: It applies to multifamily housing with federal assistance, but not single-family So the best housing for climate and urban vibrancy has to go through red tape, while most sprawl does not The federal permitting bill fixes this!

The first major federal housing package in 30 years is now law. It combines over 50 bills, and puts the federal government on the side of legalizing housing: 1. Cuts some federal funding from expensive places that don't allow housing and gives it to places that do. The first federal carrots and sticks tied to housing results! 2. Removes the requirement for a metal chassis from manufactured housing, saving ~$5-10K per home and making multifamily manufactured housing possible 3. Rewards zoning reform with grants to support schools, sewers, and other needs 4. Rewards cities that create preapproved building plans so builders can build without delay 5. Federal guidelines for single-stair buildings (!) 6. Federal guidelines for zoning reform 7. Exempts infill and other low-impact housing from environmental review 8. Makes it easier for HUD to get money out the door after disasters without months of rulemaking 9. Ends duplicate inspections for housing funded by multiple federal programs 10. Updates the HOME program to remove blockers for federally-funded affordable housing 11. Creates grants to repair old housing stock 12. Allows banks to invest in more affordable housing 13. Streamlines rehab of old public housing buildings and adding mixed-income homes 14. Encourages financing changes to enable modular housing that lowers construction costs 15. Requires databases of local publicly-owned land that could be used for housing 16. Preserves build-to-rent homebuilding ...plus 42 other sections, most a labor of love from a staffer and their boss trying to tackle the largest cost Americans face each month