Next Steps
Since its inception in 2001, the
Transportation Permit Efficiency and Accountability
Committee (TPEAC) has sought to improve the permit and
decision-making process for Washington State Department
of Transportation (WSDOT) projects while maintaining
high standards for environmental and natural resource
protection. The tools, processes, and “new ways of doing
business” developed and advanced by TPEAC and its
subcommittees, task forces, and individual members
reflect one of the lasting values of the TPEAC
experience. While much has been done, there is still
much to do. Achieving permit efficiency and
accountability is more than just developing new tools,
new products, or new processes. It is foundational. It
is about making on-going organizational and
institutional commitments necessary to refine
improvements already made, increase efficiencies already
achieved, and seek greater outcomes from today’s
permitting and regulatory systems.
The Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance oversees
the Governor’s Regulatory Improvement Program and
implementation of Governor Gregoire’s recent
Executive Order
#06-02 on Regulatory Improvement. ORA leads a
multi-agency collaborative program involving local,
state, and federal levels of government, and works with
licensing, tax collection, permitting, and other
regulatory agencies to improve and simplify regulatory
services, systems, and requirements. ORA’s goals, like
those of TPEAC, are broadly to increase regulatory
predictability, bring about more efficient use of
governmental regulatory resources, and achieve greater
and more effective environmental and natural resource
protection outcomes.
TPEAC participants have identified several areas where
further progress could be made and ongoing efforts
should be emphasized (see
TPEAC Resolution
#23 on Approving the Continuation of TPEAC Streamlining
Activities by the Office of Regulatory Assistance). ORA is optimally positioned to
support continuation and completion of these efforts, as
well as (and perhaps even more importantly so) to
sustain the organizational and institutional momentum
cultivated through the TPEAC experience. Each of the
folders below identifies next steps necessary to
continue to advance regulatory improvement progress made
by TPEAC, both within the context of WSDOT
transportation projects and the larger context of the
Governor’s Regulatory Improvement Program lead by ORA.
 
 
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