Rick Crawford, United States Representative

One of my biggest priorities as the Chairman of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee is to relieve supply chain bottlenecks that continue to plague our economy. The high prices and slow economic growth that consumers and businesses already face are made worse due to continued supply chain problems. For the past several months, my Subcommittee, part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has held hearings to learn directly from stakeholders where our supply chain falls short. With additional information gleaned from that process, I recently introduced several bills to target aspects of this problem, legislation that will remove barriers to the movement of goods, increase supply chain efficiency, and target infrastructure investment to fix persistent chokepoints that stifle economic growth. These bills have since been approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and will soon head to House floor for consideration and passage. Among those bills is the One Federal Decision For All Act, which streamlines the review process for major infrastructure projects, consolidating duplicative environmental reviews now undertaken by multiple government agencies. Currently, this stream-lined process only applies to high-way projects, and stakeholders have seen a significant decrease in time-to-approval as a result. My bill would expand this current law to apply to pipeline, port, and aviation construction. In a time of rapid inflation, delays can be particularly costly. By removing these barriers we can shorten the approval time and help contractors cut costs. The supply chain disruptions that have persisted for several years have only created more obstacles for the American people in paying their bills and putting food on the table. My proposed legislation, and other bills passed by my subcommittee, will improve how goods move throughout the nation and help ease the inflationary pressures exacerbated by supply chain inefficiencies.