TEA-21 and Environmental Streamlining

Section 1309 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) calls for a coordinated environmental review process to expedite Federal highway and transit projects. The agencies below agree to streamline environmental review processes in accordance with TEA-21 and other relevant environmental statutes in ways that reinforce our Federal responsibility to protect the environment. To meet this commitment, we agree to:

Reduce Project Delays

• Identify solutions such as programmatic agreements to reduce unnecessary project delays, including delays caused by staffing constraints, and to amend rules and policies where needed without compromising environmental quality.
• Apply the necessary technical and financial resources to identify and resolve issues early, especially on projects that are not typical or have potential to create the most damaging impacts to the environment.
• Direct field organizations to work collaboratively to develop processes that assure the timely, cost-effective development of sound transportation plans and projects.
• Emphasize the use of concurrent review of plans and projects.
• Develop national procedures for dispute resolution and encourage the use of appropriate mechanisms and organizations.
• Provide timely review and constructive comments on transportation proposals focusing additional information requests on information which is needed to reach an informed decision.
• Support and encourage field offices to explore flexible streamlining opportunities on their own and with state transportation and environmental partners including developing MOUs to lay out mutual expectations, funding agreements in support of streamlining, and concurrent review within cooperatively determined time frames. One example might be pilot projects to investigate new methodologies that lead to a single public interest decision to satisfy multiple agency requirements.
• Establish, with stakeholder input, goals, performance measures, and benchmarks to evaluate transportation and environmental decision making

Mortimer L. Downey Deputy Secretary    U.S. Department of Transportation    7-20-99 Date	//Signed by// Joseph W. Westphal Assistant Secretary of the Army U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 7-01-99 Date
John Berry Assistant Secretary Policy, Management and Budget U.S. Department of Interior 7-08-99 Date	Peter D. Robertson Acting Deputy Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a 7-01-99 Date
D. James Baker Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere U.S. Department of Commerce 7-14-99 Date	Cathryn Buforn Slater Chairman Advisory Council for Historic Preservation a 7-08-99 Date
James R. Lyons Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment U.S. Department of Agriculture 7-20-99 Date