House Republicans on a Natural Resources subcommittee offered support Thursday for a plethora of bills that would waive federal regulations to speed a range of projects from rebuilding fire damaged areas in the Grand Canyon to building an emergency road for residents of a growing Virginia town.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), who chairs the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands, said that while the slew of bills discussed at the hearing covered a broad range of issues, “they share a common thread: Each one confronts a problem made worse by outdated federal policies that delay recovery, hinder modernization, or simply fail to reflect the realities facing Americans on the ground.”
The highlight of the hearing’s agenda was a bill designed to help speed repairs to infrastructure and natural resources along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park that were destroyed in July by the Dragon Bravo Fire.
H.R. 5729, sponsored by Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), would expedite repairs by authorizing the National Park Service to use existing emergency authorities to quickly hire the contractors needed to do the restoration work.
