not yet effective
Effective 2026-08-17 per the Federal Register.
This is an interim final rule from NASA that rewrites the agency’s procedures for carrying out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), replacing its old rules in 14 CFR Part 1216. It takes effect August 17, 2026, but NASA is also accepting public comments through July 31, 2026, and may adjust the rule afterward. The rule only sets out NASA’s internal review process; it does not decide the outcome of any specific project.
NASA’s prior rules relied on separate government-wide regulations that have since been withdrawn, plus recent changes to the NEPA law (in 2023 and again in 2025), so this rule updates NASA’s procedures to match current law. It adds page limits and deadlines for the two main study documents—environmental assessments and environmental impact statements—and reflects a new law allowing project sponsors to pay a fee for a shortened review. It folds in 19 “categorical exclusions” (categories of routine activities that normally skip detailed review) borrowed from other agencies such as the Department of Energy, Coast Guard, Forest Service, Navy, and FBI. It also removes two existing exclusions—for issuing procedural rules and for information-gathering studies—on the basis that those activities do not count as “major Federal actions” covered by NEPA. NASA notes that about 98% of its actions already qualify for a categorical exclusion, 1.4% get an environmental assessment, and 0.16% require a full environmental impact statement.
The rule directly governs NASA offices proposing actions and non-Federal project sponsors who want to do something on NASA property or that needs NASA’s approval, telling them how to prepare the required environmental documents. Members of the public are affected mainly as reviewers, since the rule sets when public notice and comment periods occur. NASA states the rule imposes no new substantive obligations or compliance costs on private citizens, small businesses, or state, local, and Tribal governments.