# H.R. 3898 (119th): Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act or the PERMIT Act

Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act or the PERMIT Act This bill limits the scope of the Clean Water Act by redefining navigable waters to exclude (1) waste treatment systems, (2) ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, (3) prior converted cropland, (4) groundwater, or (5) any other features determined to be excluded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: clean_water. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: environment. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: regulatory_scope. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: unclear. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 329: On Motion to Recommit. Vote type: recommit.
Roll 330: On Passage. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: This is a regulatory scope dispute over the Clean Water Act. It combines plausible prudential goods, such as clearer limits on federal jurisdiction and reduced burdens on farmers and infrastructure, with real environmental and stewardship concerns about weakening protections for waters and groundwater and leaving broad exclusion discretion to an agency. It does not directly advance or restrain a named moral evil, so it is best classed as mixed.
Theological note: The bill concerns stewardship of water, land, and the scope of federal environmental authority. Scripture calls believers to faithful stewardship of creation and to just dealings with neighbors, and it also cautions against unaccountable concentrations of power. The measure raises questions of prudent stewardship and of how far agency discretion should extend, but the text alone does not show a direct moral wrong.

## Recorded votes

Roll 329: On Motion to Recommit. Yea 210 · Nay 216 · Other 7.
Roll 330: On Passage. Yea 221 · Nay 205 · Other 7.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-3898-119/