S. 302 would revise environmental regulations that are applied to certain highway infrastructure projects on Indian reservations. Those projects are administered by the Department of the Interior and the Federal Highway Administration and are funded from the Highway Trust Fund. Specifically, the bill would permit certain projects that address the safety of roads and bridges to be eligible for a different standard of environmental review, known as a categorical exclusion. The bill also would permit the Department of Transportation to delegate the responsibility for determining whether projects are eligible for expedited review to the tribes.
Because S. 302 would not change the amount of funds authorized for such projects nor impose any significant additional requirements on any agency, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would have no significant cost.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 302 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO also estimates that enacting S. 302 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 302 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
