In The News
Wersterman in the Washington Times: We need highways, bridges, and waterways. Burdensome permitting processes are in the way
We need highways, bridges, and waterways. Burdensome permitting processes are in the way
By: Bruce Westerman – March 26, 2025 Once a powerhouse and frontrunner for innovation and expansion, the United States is now severely lacking in the ability to deliver infrastructure projects. Make no mistake: we certainly have the capability and resources to build state-of-the art facilities and infrastructure. The holdup, however, lies in senseless and weighty bureaucratic red tape most notably, a cumbersome permitting process that has proven to prevent the United States from successfully competing with our adversaries and producing innovative, modern resources to meet the growing demands of a 21st century society. We see the current cumbersome permitting process restrict all areas of federal oversight. As the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, I’m certainly no stranger to the burden our permitting process places on the ability to produce crucial energy or create better forest management practices. And, as a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, I see firsthand how the permitting process stifles innovation and production as it relates to necessary infrastructure, like the I-49 construction in Arkansas’ 4th district, which I represent in Congress. Looking back at our nation’s history as it relates to transportation and infrastructure, one cannot overlook the immensity of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s implementation of the Interstate Highway System. By today’s standards, this project is impossible. Eisenhower initiated this project in 1956, nearly half a century after the first automobile was built by Henry Ford, to address numerous public and national safety concerns flagged in the wake of World War II. To this day, the Interstate Highway System connects Americans with travel and trade opportunities that would be otherwise impossible. Arkansas is home to much of the McLellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS). The MKARNS is a 445-mile navigation channel that connects Oklahoma with the Mississippi River. The waterway is supported by a remarkable system of 18 locks and dams, which make large-scale navigation safe and efficient for commercial and recreational vessels alike. These feats of engineering provide flood control, recreation, and more than one billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The commercial navigation capability provided by the locks and dams allows over 12 million tons of cargo to flow through the state, contributing over 40,000 jobs to Arkansans and adding a sales impact of $5.5 billion. Nowadays, building just one lock and dam would, speaking very conservatively, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years, if not decades, to complete. Back when federal oversight wasn’t nearly as oppressive and there was a greater emphasis on action over arguing, projects like these took half the time and cost taxpayers significantly less hard-earned money to produce. It’s remarkable that we were able to build 42,000 miles of interstate in 35 years, with most of it already paid for — while a current project in my district, reconstruction of a rock-surfaced road that services White Rock Mountain, which was washed out three years ago in a landslide, is still nowhere near complete. The large-scale projects we were once capable of completing, pouring thousands of miles of concrete versus less than a mile of gravel for the White Rock project, show how far backward we have gone thanks to impractical government overreach. These projects are staggering in comparison and should only further spur us toward following through on the permitting reform process. President Ronald Reagan summed up the reality of burdensome federal red tape when he said, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” |