The White House will establish a new council to reform the current approval process for highway development and other projects as part of President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure modernization plan, Reuters reported Friday.
President Trump said the council will work to help infrastructure project managers address bureaucracy and create an online dashboard for agencies to track key projects throughout the authorization process.
Reuters reported the administration also plans to set up a new office within the Transportation Department‘s environmental quality council to clarify lines of authority, increase efficiency and simplify government approaches to modernize infrastructure at the federal, state and local levels.
“One of the biggest obstacles to creating this new infrastructure… is the painfully slow, costly and time-consuming process for getting permits and approvals to build,” Trump added, according to the report.
He vowed to penalize agencies that miss deadlines and delay various projects, Government Executive reported Friday.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he will evaluate interagency collaboration between the departments of Transportation, Energy and Agriculture in efforts to eliminate the bureaucratic process, the report added.