EDITORIAL: Congress must expedite the regulatory process to speed up public-works projects

Senate Democrats claim they’re ready to work with Donald Trump on a massive infrastructure program designed to rebuild roads, bridges, airports and the like. But that commitment is likely to go only as far as the party’s elite environmentalist benefactors will allow.

In other words, not very far.

To be sure, there are plenty of barriers separating the new president and Democrats on the issue. Progressives seek to harness taxpayers to a $1 trillion dollar public-works initiative, which will no doubt be larded up with goodies for favored constituents such as organized labor and the green crowd. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has proposed controlling costs and sparing taxpayers by offering tax credits to private contractors to get the work done.

Politico noted that such differences suggest the idea “may be in trouble before negotiations even begin.”

But the problems run deeper than just philosophical disagreements over financing. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that if history is any guide, even vital public-works needs are certain to be delayed and crippled by overly burdensome regulatory demands and lawsuits. “Long costly reviews and legal battles will likely confront Mr. Trump’s efforts,” the paper concludes.

Consider a handful of examples highlighted in the newspaper’s account:

— In the late 1950s, California officials embarked upon a six-mile freeway extension in Los Angeles County. For almost six decades, however, environmental mandates, municipal infighting and legal wrangling with historical preservationists have blocked the project.

— The Army Corps of Engineers spent 16 years trying to secure the necessary permits from 10 federal and state agencies to dredge the harbor in Savannah, Ga. Work started just last year.

— A plan to build a bridge over the Mobile River in Alabama has been on hold for 14 years during the regulatory process and remains years away from fruition.

The situation continues to deteriorate. “Completing the [regulatory] process took almost 10 years for major highway projects that received their final review in 2015,” the Journal reports, “up from about five years in 2005.”

The additional costs inherent in such delays only further punish taxpayers.

It will take more than just a signature on an executive order to remedy the matter. To streamline the process, Congress must act. If Democrats really hope to embark upon an infrastructure binge, they’ll embrace legislation to expedite regulatory reviews and even repeal some of the hurdles that help activists drag out the process.

All of this would no doubt anger the penthouse environmentalists who help drive the progressive agenda. But if the Democratic commitment to public-works improvements is to be more than cynical lip service, the choice is crystal clear.