WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rich Nolan, the National Mining Association’s (NMA) President and CEO, today joined members of Congress and representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Road & Transportation Builders Association, Data Center Coalition and other organizations, on Capitol Hill for a Permitting Reform Legislative Day of Action to advance legislation that will modernize our nation’s permitting processes.
At a press conference alongside Congressman Bruce Westerman and other congressional leaders, Nolan said, in part, “The permitting status quo cannot continue. It takes a stunning 29 years to bring a mine online in the U.S., longer than all other countries but one. That’s absurd…Congress now has an opportunity take a strategic leap forward to confront China’s weaponization of mineral and energy supply chains. We need the Senate to act. The resources, ingenuity and capital markets are all here. The opportunity before us is tremendous. Now is the moment to turn the page on decades of inaction and confront this crisis with the seriousness it demands.”
The House closed out 2025 with significant action to advance key pieces of permitting reform, passing the bipartisan Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (MRCA), the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (SPEED) Act and the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act, all of which make key improvements to existing cumbersome and outdated processes. Comprehensive reform–including Senate action–is now needed to ensure that improvements are made and are durable.
Read more from Rich Nolan on the need for permitting reform in his op-ed on DC Journal.
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