CERTAIN Act

Key Points

• The CERTAIN Act sets strict deadlines for federal environmental reviews. Simple permits must be decided within 30 days, while the most complex reviews requiring a full environmental impact statement must be completed within two years. If an agency misses a deadline on a routine authorization, the permit is automatically approved.
• Once a federal permit is granted, agencies would be largely blocked from revoking or changing it. The government could only pull back an authorization if ordered by a court, if there is an immediate threat to life or national security, if the permit holder requests it, or if the permit was obtained through fraud or a major violation.
• If a federal agency misses any deadline set by this law, project developers can sue, and courts must rule within 90 days. The bill creates a legal presumption that the agency acted unlawfully when it misses a deadline, making it easier for developers to win in court.
• The bill requires multiple federal agencies working on the same project to coordinate through a single lead agency and produce one combined final decision document, rather than forcing developers to navigate separate, overlapping reviews.
• To address staffing shortages that cause permit delays, the bill gives agency heads direct hire authority to quickly bring on qualified employees, bypassing normal competitive hiring rules. Agencies must also assess their staffing capacity every five years.