A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has introduced legislation aimed at reducing delays in the construction of major manufacturing facilities, like Micron’s planned multi-billion dollar semiconductor plant just outside of Syracuse.

The legislation, led by New York Congressman Nick Langworthy, seeks to streamline what the Republican argues can be a duplicative environmental review process. In short, the bill exempts such major projects from certain federal reviews when in states where they already must meet equally or more stringent state-level environmental standards.

New York is one of the states where the exemption would kick in.

In a statement, Langworthy said, “The last thing we should be doing is making companies go through an additional review process that would lead to an indistinguishable outcome.”

The bill has bipartisan backing, including from Syracuse-area Democratic Congressman John Mannion.

“We have these strict environmental regulations that are stricter than the federal process, so let's not penalize the folks that are trying to do the right thing,” Mannion said in an interview.

Micron hit a milestone earlier this year, submitting an environmental impact report for its massive proposed semiconductor factory in Clay. The report, which is a crucial step as the company looks to get sign-off from state and federal officials to move ahead with construction, was two years in the making.

In testimony submitted to Congress this month, Micron Executive Vice President of Global Operations Manish Bhatia offered praise for Langworthy’s bill and warned, “The failure to address the duplicative federal and state environmental process requirements has delayed our [New York] project by two years and increased costs for Micron across the board.”

Environmental advocates from Central New York told Spectrum News they are evaluating the legislation.

“It's a very, very highly toxic industry that's coming into our area,” said Rhea Jezer, president of Energy21 and chair of the Central New York group of the Sierra Club. “The environmentalists don't want to at all say that we don't want to have progress here and don't want manufacturing to come in. We just want to make sure that it is as environmentally secure as we possibly can.”

Frank Moses, who serves as executive director of the Skaneateles Lake Association, said New York has “phenomenal environmental protections.”

“If the integrity of the bill is looking at reducing the redundancies between, let's say, the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the National Environmental Protection Act, then I think it's sensible to be efficient where those are apples to apples redundancies,” Moses said.

The bill is in its earliest stages on Capitol Hill. If it gains momentum, it is unclear if it will be in time to have any tangible impact on Micron’s Syracuse-area plant, where the goal is to have a November groundbreaking.