Sponsors (2)
Speeds review and lowers costs for California water projects but does so largely by reducing environmental safeguards and transparency, increasing ecological risk and potential litigation and costs for taxpayers.
California local and state water project developers and homeowners: federal review of major water-supply and storage projects will be faster and face fewer regulatory delays, potentially speeding project completion and water availability.
State and local governments and project developers: improved federal agency coordination and information-sharing will reduce duplicative compliance work and administrative costs for projects.
Project stakeholders (developers and governments): clearer guidance on which recent legal changes apply to projects (including FYA 2023) will help planning and adaptation.
Rural communities, ecosystems, and species in California: suspending or rescinding environmental protections could weaken safeguards for rivers and habitats, harming ecosystems and local livelihoods.
The public and environmental groups: shifting decisionmaking toward agency managers focused on project delivery may reduce independent environmental review and procedural transparency.
Taxpayers and local governments: accelerated regulatory rollbacks could increase litigation risk and legal uncertainty, potentially delaying projects and raising costs that fall on taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Interior and Commerce to identify major California water projects, name coordinators, and produce plans to remove regulatory requirements deemed to 'unduly burden' those projects within 30 days.
Official title: To codify certain sections of Executive Order 14181 relating to emergency measures to provide water resources in California and improve disaster response in certain areas.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by Adam Gray · Last progress December 11, 2025
Directs the Interior and Commerce Secretaries to identify major water-supply and storage projects in California for which they have ESA or NEPA responsibilities, name a federal compliance coordinator for those projects, and have each coordinator identify regulatory requirements that "unduly burden" projects, recent legal changes that affect them, and a proposed plan to suspend, revise, or rescind unnecessary regulatory requirements. Coordinators must share information and develop proposed plans within 30 days of enactment. Applies only to federal agency responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act for covered California projects; it does not itself change substantive law or appropriate new funding.