PRESERVATION INITIATIVES 2014-2017 The current reporting period spans two Administrations, and in the first year of the current Administration several laws, EOs, and policies have been and are being promulgated that are already having an impact on how the federal government utilizes its historic properties and how it will carry out its stewardship responsibilities. The extent to which real property management practices and others (budget, shrinking government, etc.) have changed or stayed the same are discussed throughout this document. ›› Permitting, streamlining, and infrastructure. During the reporting period, the federal government focused legislative and policy attention on the improvement of the federal permitting process for infrastructure projects affecting historic properties on federal lands. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST) Act was passed in December 2015. Title 41 of the FAST Act created the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council), of which the ACHP is a member. The Permitting Council plays a key role in implementing specific provisions in Title 41 of the FAST Act. The FAST-41 process was designed to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain large-scale infrastructure projects, some of which may be located in part on federal land. FAST- 41 provides for improving the federal coordination of environmental reviews, including Section 106 reviews, but does not alter an agency’s responsibility to comply with Section 106 or change the requirements or timeframes in the ACHP’s regulations or an existing Section 106 Programmatic Agreement. Federal agencies develop permitting timetables for projects following the FAST-41 process. Milestones for environmental review and other information about covered projects are publicly tracked on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 also requires the Permitting Council to develop best practices that can be applied broadly to federal environmental reviews and authorizations to all infrastructure projects. On August 15, 2017, the President issued EO 13807, “Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure,” with the goal of increasing the coordination, predictability, and transparency of the federal environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects. This EO strengthens the accountability of federal agencies in carrying out environmental review for major infrastructure projects and includes important new milestones–namely, for agencies to coordinate their reviews and complete them within an average of two years. The ACHP participated in an interagency consultation process led by the Departments of the Army, Interior, and Justice in late 2016 to identify opportunities for more effectively consulting Indian tribes on infrastructure projects affecting historic properties on federal lands and prepared a report with recommendations specific to the Section 106 process in response to comments offered by Indian tribes [http://www.achp.gov/docs/ achp-infrastructure-report.pdf ]. The ACHP’s report is a companion publication to an interagency report on Improving Tribal Consultation and Tribal Involvement in Federal Infrastructure Decisions released in January 2017 in response to the listening sessions. [https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/as-ia/pdf/idc2-060030.pdf ] These developments are part of an ongoing emphasis within the federal government on improving efficiency and increasing interagency coordination for infrastructure project reviews. Federal land-managing agencies have been actively involved in these efforts as they consider the siting of pipelines, electric transmission lines, oil and gas drilling, communication facilities, and other types of infrastructure on their property.
8 | IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A REPORT ON FEDERAL HISTORIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 2018
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