Potential Project Delays from Regulatory Freeze
To reduce the regulatory burden on our economy, Reince Priebus, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff issued a Memorandum: Regulatory Freeze Pending Review. Unless the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) grants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) an exclusion from the recently published new Nationwide Permits (NWPs), they could be delayed – which will cause a gap in the availability of NWPs since the current program expires on March 18, 2017.
Corps staff are working on obtaining an exclusion for this program – and indicators are positive that this unintended consequence will be avoided.
At the same time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has indicated that the listing of the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee has not been officially delayed by the Regulatory Freeze Pending Review. For more information, see our Field Notes article.
The Regulatory Freeze will also impact elements of both the National Flood Insurance Program and FEMA grant program, namely resulting in delays to Letters of Map Revision (LOMR) issuances and notices of funding opportunities for grants.
For questions about this memo, please contact WSSI staff listed below.