U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, announces his 2026 campaign for governor during an event on June 30, 2025, at the David Lust Accelerator Building in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

A bill that U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, says would modernize federal permitting passed the House unanimously Tuesday.

According to Johnson, the federal permitting process “has failed to ensure project permitting is on-time and on-task.”

“Oftentimes, the root causes of delays in the environmental review process have little to do with questions about environmental protection and a lot to do with failure to embrace modern technology and move on from legacy bureaucratic approaches, like paper forms,” Johnson’s office said in a news release.

Johnson’s ePermit Act would establish a framework for agencies to implement a digital permitting system and unified portal, his office said.

The bill now goes to the Senate.