2. Executive Office of the President · Notable

Make the FPISC Executive Director an EOP appointee with directive authority

Not started

Printed page 60 2. Executive Office of the President

“The President should build on this foundation to further empower the FPISC by making its Executive Director an EOP appointee with delegated presidential directive authority over executive branch permitting agencies.”

What has happened

Jul 22, 2026 Not started
The Permitting Council's Executive Director has not been made an EOP appointee and holds no delegated presidential directive authority over permitting agencies. Emily Domenech, previously senior policy adviser to two Speakers of the House, serves as Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council — the statutory FAST-41 post, in a small independent establishment with its own budget requests and its own FAST-41 program, not a position in the Executive Office of the President. No executive order in the window relocates the office or gives its Director authority to direct other agencies; the permitting orders that were issued run through Cabinet secretaries and CEQ instead.
- Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, "Emily Domenech, Executive Director" (page last updated 22 July 2026)
  Primary Executive branch Jul 22, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Negative search. Our roster of officials has no current office matching the Permitting Council. Senate nominations (congress.gov) have no Permitting Improvement entries (the Executive Director is presidentially appointed without Senate confirmation); the Council’s only Federal Register output in the window is three information-collection notices; all 277 executive orders listed by title, none concerning the FPISC. Read EO 14318 and the Updating Permitting Technology memorandum in full — neither touches the Executive Director’s status.

Unified Agenda (reginfo.gov, checked 2026-09-01). The Permitting Council does file an agenda, and its entire 2026 active list is one RIN — 3121-AA06, Disclosure of Permitting Council Records and Information, Proposed Rule Stage, Previously Published in The Unified Agenda, 40 CFR 1900.3 — a FOIA and Privacy Act procedures rule. Nothing on the agenda touches the Executive Director’s appointment or authority, and nothing could: the ask is for a presidential act relocating a statutory FAST-41 post into the EOP. The negative is exhaustive as to Permitting Council rulemaking and silent as to how the post is filled.

Action: appoint
Object: Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council
ID: 88