A pair of senators is planning to advance a coastal infrastructure bill at a hearing next month after scrapping discussions about adding it as an amendment to a high-profile permitting reform bill that passed out of committee on Wednesday.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) had sought to add the “Reinvesting in Shoreline Economies and Ecosystems Act” as an amendment to the major bipartisan permitting reform bill that was considered in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, Whitehouse told the Washington Examiner. The RISEE Act would direct revenue streams from offshore and onshore energy projects to states to use for coastal restoration and conservation.
But the RISEE Act is not among the 60 amendments filed to be proposed for addition to the permitting bill. Whitehouse had told the Washington Examiner that if he and Cassidy were not able to get the measure considered during Wednesday's committee meeting, it would instead be taken up in a separate September markup.
“We’ve worked out an alternative arrangement,” Cassidy told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
A Senate aide said committee leadership had only allowed for amendments that wouldn’t affect spending levels to be introduced at the markup since it was unclear what the cost estimate of the permitting bill would be. Amendments that would need a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office would be pushed to the September markup. The legislative vehicle for the amendments is likely to be a public lands bill, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) announced during Wednesday's hearing.
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The plan to consider amendments that require CBO scores at a later date was undertaken to ensure the smooth passage of the permitting reform bill out of committee and prevent other measures from complicating its approval. Some amendments were withdrawn during Wednesday's markup of the permitting reform bill, with an agreement to consider the measures during September's hearing.
The permitting reform bill, negotiated by Manchin and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), is the result of a yearslong effort by legislators to find ways to accelerate project approvals, which are often slowed by complicated bureaucratic processes and held up by court battles. The bill easily passed out of committee on Wednesday, 15-4.