FAST-41 Program

Congress created the Permitting Council in 2015 to be the central body to coordinate federal environmental reviews and authorizations for certain infrastructure projects. Congress recognized then, and we continue to see today, that complex projects that involve multiple agencies can suffer from inefficient communication, unpredictable timelines, and a lack of ownership in federal decision-making.

The Permitting Council addresses those very real challenges by providing transparency, predictability and accountability to the federal permitting process. Our agency doesn’t issue permits or influence decisions, instead we serve as convener, project manager, innovator, and helper to projects that are in the FAST-41 portfolio.

Record of Decision nearly 18 Months Faster

For projects that opt-in to the FAST-41 program.

In many ways, project developers are our customers, and we focus on optimizing the process so infrastructure developers get a permitting decision, whether yes or no, in a timely, predictable manner. In fact infrastructure projects supported through FAST-41 achieved a Record of Decision (ROD) nearly 18 months faster than those that did not opt-in to the program.

We want to support more projects through the permitting process by leveraging our permitting assistance program. Learn more about the benefits of FAST-41 below, and reach out to FAST-41@permitting.gov with questions.

What is FAST-41?

FAST-41 is a legislatively established process for improving federal agency coordination and timeliness of environmental reviews for infrastructure projects. The FAST-41 program gets its name from Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which established the FAST-41 review process and the Permitting Council to implement it. Through FAST-41, the Permitting Council provides focused, hands-on permitting support to infrastructure projects and improves efficiency through clearer timelines and better coordination across federal agencies.

Participation in the FAST-41 program is voluntary. Sponsors of infrastructure projects that meet FAST-41’s eligibility criteria must request that their project receive coverage to obtain program benefits. FAST-41 project sponsors may be public or private entities, Tribes, or public-private partnerships that develop critical infrastructure projects across eligible infrastructure sectors. FAST-41 does not change any statutory or regulatory requirement, environmental law, regulation, review process, or public involvement procedure, and does not predetermine the outcome of any federal decision-making process. 

$100B in investments. 50,000 jobs.

Across all FAST-41 projects.

All projects in the FAST-41 project portfolio are tracked on the public Permitting Dashboard, enhancing public transparency and driving forward the nation's infrastructure goals while maintaining rigorous environmental standards.

What are the benefits of FAST-41?

Each infrastructure project that obtains FAST-41 coverage receives the following benefits:

• A dedicated infrastructure project advisor who acts as your primary contact, problem solver, and partner through the permitting process.

• A coordinated permitting timetable that is publicly posted on the Permitting Dashboard, and tracks all required federal environmental reviews and authorizations, reducing delays and enhancing predictability.

• Greater visibility into federal agency processes for setting timetables and meeting milestones, including a coordination role in the initial development of the permitting timetable.

• Transparent communication with responsible federal agencies when deadlines on the permitting timetable need to be changed, and, in certain instances, the need for approval from the Permitting Council Executive Director before a deadline is moved.

• Senior federal agency visibility into FAST-41 covered projects at the deputy secretary level of federal agencies as well as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality that sit on the Permitting Council.

• The convening power of the Permitting Council to bring together agency partners to identify emerging issues and problem solve to help keep the federal environmental reviews and authorizations on track and on schedule. 

• A dedicated project page on the Permitting Dashboard, a public online tool used to track FAST-41 project timelines and actions taken by federal agencies. 

Ultimately, we leverage FAST-41 to provide a cross-government approach to encourage collaboration and coordination.This buy-in helps to keep infrastructure projects moving forward and also helps keep both agency staff and project sponsors accountable to the schedule. That’s why FAST-41 covered projects on average complete their environmental review process with only a 16 percent extension of their original schedule.