Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finalized a rule modernizing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. This Final Rule adopts the changes introduced in the Interim Final Rule published on July 3, 2025, which consolidated seven agency-specific NEPA regulations into a single, department wide framework, reducing the overall volume of regulations by 66 percent. This major action is also a linchpin in Secretary Rollins’ broader Deregulatory Agenda for U.S. Agriculture and Consumers (PDF, 5.1 MB).
“Since last July, agencies at USDA have shown they can reduce environmental review timelines by up to 80%. These faster, more efficient reviews are saving the Department millions in taxpayer dollars,” said Secretary Rollins. “Those savings benefit the American people, and quicker reviews mean the loans, critical infrastructure, and forest health projects our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities depend on can move forward sooner. USDA is proud to help advance President Trump’s vision of a government that serves its citizens, beginning with cutting unnecessary bureaucratic overreach.”
Read more from the US Department of Agriculture here.
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