The "FREEDOM Act" seeks to significantly streamline federal permitting and leasing processes for energy and mineral projects, addressing concerns about regulatory uncertainty, delays, and financial losses that deter critical infrastructure investment. Congress finds that agency failures to meet deadlines or permit revocations cause catastrophic financial losses for project sponsors, undermining energy security and increasing costs for consumers.

The bill introduces a new framework for **covered energy projects**, encompassing infrastructure for energy development, carbon capture, and mineral extraction. Project sponsors must submit a notice of initiation, after which a lead agency establishes a project schedule, identifying all required authorizations as either **routine** or **complex**. Agencies are then subject to strict **authorization deadlines**: 90 days for routine authorizations and one year for complex ones, with a two-year deadline for projects requiring an environmental impact statement. Failure by an agency to meet these deadlines or milestones is considered a final agency action, subject to judicial review, unless agreed upon by the project sponsor or due to natural disaster or national emergency.

A central provision is the establishment of a **De-Risking Compensation Program** within the Department of Energy. This program aims to reduce regulatory risks and facilitate financing by compensating project sponsors for unrecoverable losses. Compensation is triggered if the U.S. Court of Federal Claims determines losses resulted from events like authorization revocation, agency failure to issue a decision by deadline, or unreasonable delay. Project sponsors enroll by paying an annual premium, and claims require demonstrating capital contribution and the causal link between agency action/inaction and unrecoverable loss.

The bill also establishes **expedited judicial review** for project sponsors to challenge final agency actions, alleged failures to act, or orders halting projects. Reviewing courts are mandated to establish expedited schedules and aim to issue decisions within 120 days. Remedies include setting aside unlawful actions, remanding matters to agencies with strict deadlines, compelling agency action, and awarding attorneys' fees and costs to prevailing project sponsors. Agencies failing to comply with court orders face civil penalties, ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 per day, payable into a new Permitting Performance Fund. If an agency fails to meet deadlines, courts may authorize project sponsors to retain **court-approved contractors** to complete necessary analyses, with costs paid from the Permitting Performance Fund. These contractors must adhere to professional standards, and their work product is deemed received by the agency, which must issue a decision within 30 days or identify specific legal deficiencies.

Furthermore, the bill limits federal actions against **fully permitted projects**, defined as those having received a substantial majority of required authorizations. Agencies are prohibited from issuing orders to halt, suspend, or revoke permits for such projects unless there is a clear, immediate, and substantiated harm, or the authorization is illegal and no other remedy exists. Agencies also cannot petition a court for voluntary remand of an authorization for a fully permitted project without the project sponsor's consent.

Specific reforms are included for geothermal energy, such as requiring annual lease sales, establishing cost recovery mechanisms, and creating a Geothermal Ombudsman within the Bureau of Land Management. It also streamlines permitting for oil and gas and geothermal activities on non-Federal land where the Federal Government owns less than 50 percent of the mineral estate, by not requiring a separate Federal drilling permit if State permits are obtained. Finally, the bill mandates the Government Accountability Office to conduct annual surveys on industry satisfaction with federal permitting and report on agency adherence to deadlines and potential unfair treatment of energy sources.