H.R. 3898
PERMIT Act
Official summary
Written by the Congressional Research Service.
Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act or the PERMIT Act
This bill limits the scope of the Clean Water Act by redefining navigable waters to exclude (1) waste treatment systems, (2) ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, (3) prior converted cropland, (4) groundwater, or (5) any other features determined to be excluded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Text of the bill
(a) In general. Section 404(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344(c)) is amended—
(1) by striking (c) The Administrator and inserting the following:
(c) Specification or use of defined area
(1) In general. The Administrator
(2) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by inserting during the period described in paragraph (2) and before after notice and opportunity for public hearings; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
(2) Period of prohibition. The period during which the Administrator may prohibit the specification (including the withdrawal of specification) of any defined area as a disposal site, or deny or restrict the use of any defined area for specification (including the withdrawal of specification) as a disposal site, under paragraph (1) shall—
(A) begin on the date on which an applicant submits all the information required to complete an application for a permit under this section; and
(B) end on the date on which the Secretary issues the permit.
(b) Applicability. The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply to a permit application submitted under section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) after the date of enactment of this Act.