Whew! What a week to start here at ESA—the blitz of executive actions from the Administration, and the race to understand their meaning and their effects, have been dizzying. Fortunately, I absolutely live for this! Fresh off my tenure as the Executive Director of the Permitting Council, I could not have picked a better time to start my journey with ESA, digging into the rapidly changing federal policy coming from Washington, D.C.
Starting on Inauguration Day, President Trump signed a record 35 executive orders during his first week in office. The topics were far-reaching, from immigration to renaming geographic features, and from funding priorities to gender terms. While each of these actions has profound consequences, my focus is on the policies that affect the planning, siting, environmental review, permitting, and construction of infrastructure. That is the universe of policy that affects our clients and what I know best.
There is no shortage of resources available to summarize the key points of these policies. Those resources are invaluable to keep track of all the moving pieces as President Trump implements his policy prerogatives. What I aim to do in this role at ESA is to provide our clients and colleagues with some context around what the changes could mean and what strategies are necessary to position projects for success considering the changing dynamics. Admittedly, that can sometimes take a minute. Still, pausing for a beat to gather the relevant info and provide actionable advice will produce better outcomes in the long run.
A great example of how quickly things can change and the need for patience to assess the effects is the recent funding freeze that wasn’t. On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget directed the heads of all federal agencies to immediately pause distribution of federal funding for grants, loans, and disbursements. As one would expect, that created confusion as the direction was imprecise and appeared to apply to all federal funding, potentially affecting food safety, veterans’ health care, and yes, infrastructure. By noon on Tuesday, the White House tried to clarify its intent, and by the end of the day, a court had stepped in to “pause the pause,” as it were. Fast forward to Wednesday and the White House rescinded the memo altogether. What we thought we knew on Monday was no longer accurate by Wednesday.
My goal with these policy updates is to work with the tremendous subject matter and technical experts here at ESA to review, analyze, and synthesize the policy changes that affect our clients and their projects. Leaning on our collective experience developing and implementing federal policy, we aim to provide clients with an honest and easily understood assessment of what legislative, regulatory, and policy changes mean and how to best pivot or adapt to ensure project success. As we’ve seen already, we can expect both incremental and seismic shifts. No matter the scope or scale of the change, ESA will be here to help you navigate these times.
Date
January 30, 2025
