AGC of America is closely tracking three environmental regulatory proposals at the White House Office of Management (OMB) for review: (1) the next revision of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), (2) listing species and designating critical habitat, and (3) interagency cooperation under the Endangered Species Act. When the government reopens, we expect these proposals to be released for public comment within a matter of weeks. AGC staff are working with members to ensure we provide construction-specific feedback to the agencies.
OMB conducts interagency reviews on pending actions at various stages, such as proposed or final regulations. The review is intended take up to 90 days, with longer timelines becoming commonplace. Some regulatory actions proceed during the shutdown, despite most federal agency staff being on furlough. When the government does reopen, OMB may be able to complete multiple reviews in quick succession—depending on priorities and how far along in the review process they had gotten. For example, WOTUS is widely considered a priority, so we would expect that review to wrap up without delay. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Jeff Clark issued a memo on October 21, directing OMB to accelerate these reviews for deregulatory actions to as short as 14 days in some instances.
The public can view all pending actions at OMB’s regulatory dashboard online at reginfo.gov (search by rule stage or by agency). Stakeholders can also request meetings on actions undergoing review under Executive Order 12866. For example, AGC participated with members in a construction-specific meeting with OMB on the WOTUS proposal on September 12, 2025, as well as on September 17, as part of a broader coalition to share general concerns.
After OMB review, the pending action (e.g., proposed rule or final rule) will go back to the originating agency (e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) before the action is published in the Federal Register. Following the shutdown there will likely be multiple actions queuing for publication, which may cause a temporary bottleneck. This means we may have a pre-publication version of WOTUS to review prior to its official publication.
AGC staff will be on a tight schedule to get in comments on these regulatory actions once published. Member examples are always valuable contributions to these letters. If you have feedback on WOTUS or species, please reach out to Melinda.Tomaino@agc.org.