Permitting Council Welcomes Two New Tribal Projects to Permitting Assistance Program
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permittting.gov)
WASHINGTON (December 11, 2024) – The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) is pleased to announce the latest projects to receive permitting assistance through the FAST-41 program, the Navajo Nation’s Department of Education E-Rate Funded Broadband Project and its Gallup McKinley County Schools E-Rate Funded Broadband project. If permitted, these projects would provide 388 miles of middle mile fiber optic network to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, connecting school districts, pre-schools and libraries to critically needed broadband.
“Ensuring that Tribal projects can access the many benefits of the FAST-41 permitting assistance program is a top priority for the Permitting Council, and therefore I couldn’t be more excited to see these two projects gain coverage,” said Eric Beightel, Permitting Council Executive Director. “These projects represent much needed infrastructure that will support Navajo communities, enabling better access to education and other essential services. I look forward to working with the Navajo Nation as these projects make their way through the process, striving to guarantee that the coordination and collaboration at the heart of FAST-41 results in an efficient federal permitting process.”
The Navajo Nation Department of Education E-Rate Funded Broadband Project plans to construct approximately 323 miles of middle mile fiber optic network. This $37 million broadband infrastructure project will connect 17 Head Start entities and 33 libraries with high-speed internet connectivity to speeds of 1 Gbps or greater.
The Navajo Nation’s Gallop McKinley County Schools E-Rate Funded Broadband Project proposes to build 65 miles of middle mile fiber optic network. This $3.6 million project will connect the school district with critically needed high speed internet to speeds of 1 Gbps or greater.
Both projects are anticipated to provide affordable, scalable, and future-proofed broadband capabilities to bridge the digital divide for the Navajo Nation, one of the most remote and difficult to serve areas in the U.S. These projects are sponsored by the Navajo Nation Broadband Office, and join the Santa Fe Indian School, the Winnebago Tribe Broadband Connectivity Project, and the Alaska Fiber Optic Project as Tribal projects covered by the FAST-41 permitting assistance program. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs serves as the lead agency for environmental review and authorizations for both Navajo Nation broadband projects. Learn more at permitting.gov.
About the Permitting Council and FAST-41
Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) and made permanent in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Permitting Council is a unique federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors. The Permitting Council also serves as a federal center for permitting excellence, supporting federal efforts to improve infrastructure permitting including and beyond FAST-41 covered projects to the extent authorized by law, including activities that promote or provide for the efficient, timely, and predictable completion of environmental reviews and authorizations for federally-authorized infrastructure projects.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, December 11, 2024