Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act

DHS Directive 023-01 Rev 01 and the Instruction Manual 023-01-001-01 Rev 01 establish the Department’s policy and procedures for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508).  Together, the Directive and Instruction apply to all of the Components of DHS and help ensure the integration of environmental considerations into DHS decision making as required by NEPA.  The Instruction serves as the DHS implementing procedures for NEPA (as required by 40 CFR 1505.1 and 1507.3) and includes the Department’s list of Categorical Exclusions, found in Appendix A, Table 1.  Notice of the Directive and Instruction were published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2014 (79 FR 70538) and became effective on March 26, 2015.  On October 13, 2017 DHS published a notice in the Federal Register (82 FR 47761) to correct administrative errors found in Appendix A, Table 1 of Instruction 023-01-001-01 Rev 01.