in effect
This is an interim final rule (with a request for public comments) issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, part of the Department of Defense. It removes most of the Corps’ own regulations that spelled out how it carried out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the Army Civil Works program. It directs that, going forward, those environmental reviews follow new Department-wide NEPA procedures issued by DoD rather than the removed Corps rules.
The rule takes effect July 3, 2025, and comments are accepted until August 4, 2025 (a 30-day window). It deletes most of the regulations at 33 CFR part 230 — removing sections 230.1 and 230.3 through 230.26 and Appendices A through C — while keeping the categorical exclusions and their basis in sections 230.2 and 230.9, and it also rescinds a related internal document, Engineering Regulation 200-2-2. The Corps says it acted because the Council on Environmental Quality’s NEPA regulations, which the Corps’ rules were built to supplement, were repealed effective April 11, 2025, leaving the Corps’ rules supplementing a framework that no longer exists. Replacement NEPA procedures will be issued by DoD and posted online rather than published in the Code of Federal Regulations, which the agency states lets it update them faster. The agency notes the Civil Works program prepares roughly 10,000 categorical exclusions a year and expects this change to increase their use and shorten project-approval timelines.
The direct effect is on the Army Corps of Engineers itself — the district engineers and staff who prepare and process environmental reviews for Army Civil Works projects — who will now follow the DoD-wide procedures instead of the removed rules. The document states these are procedural rules that do not impose binding legal obligations on private citizens, and that projects already underway when the rule took effect continue under the prior rules. The Corps’ permitting programs and its 33 U.S.C. 408 “request for permission” program are not covered here and are being handled in a separate action; members of the public may submit comments during the 30-day window.