Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 13604: Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects

President: Barack Obama

Created interagency plans, metrics and a public dashboard to speed infrastructure permitting while improving outcomes.

Status: In effect. Is Executive Order 13604 still in effect? Yes. Executive Order 13604 remains an unrevoked permitting-coordination directive. The current Federal Register disposition table lists no revocation, and the signed text includes recurring reporting duties without a termination date. FAST-41 established a later statutory Permitting Council framework; replacing or expanding administrative mechanisms is not an express revocation of this order. Sources: Current Federal Register executive order disposition table: 2012; Executive Order 13604: signed Federal Register text; Permitting Council: FAST-41 statutory framework.

What does Executive Order 13604 do?

EO 13604 required agencies to coordinate early, run reviews concurrently where practical, publish schedules and measure performance for major infrastructure decisions. Its steering committee and federal plan helped establish the Permitting Dashboard model. Congress institutionalized a stronger version in FAST-41 in 2015, creating the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council; later administrations then layered new permitting and environmental-review policies onto that statutory system.

Administration position: The order sought faster and more transparent review but did not waive NEPA, consultation, environmental standards or an agency’s duty to reach an independent decision.
SignedMarch 22, 2012
Original bodyFederal permitting improvement steering committee
Key toolOnline Permitting Dashboard

Before and after

Before the order

Complex projects often moved through sequential agency reviews without one public timetable or common performance plan.

After the order

Agencies coordinated schedules and reporting, providing a model for the later statutory FAST-41 process.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Original steering committeeDevelop and monitor agency plansSuperseded
AgenciesUse early coordination schedules and transparency toolsContinuing under later frameworks
Permitting CouncilAdminister FAST-41 and the current dashboardCurrent statutory role

What happened next

EO 13604 issued.

FAST-41 created a statutory Permitting Council and process.