Shapiro Administration Cuts Wait Times for Permits and Licenses Even Further, Helping Pennsylvania Win $20 Billion Investment from Amazon

Shapiro Administration continues to eliminate red tape and reduce processing times for permits, licenses, and certificates.

Department of State recently achieved one-day processing times for certain kinds of business filings — down from 8 weeks at the beginning of the Shapiro Administration.

Department of Environmental Protection has reduced its permit backlog by 94 percent and has already reviewed more than 17,000 permits this year

Harrisburg, PA – The Shapiro Administration continues its work to eliminate red tape for Pennsylvania workers and businesses, a key factor that helped Governor Josh Shapiro secure an initial $20 billion investment from Amazon in state-of-the-art data centers across the Commonwealth — the largest private sector investment in the Commonwealth’s history.

Last week at the Amazon announcement, Governor Shapiro said, “a big reason we were able to get this done is because of Pennsylvania’s new fast-track permitting system, allowing those to understand how quickly they can get a permit, and it’s all done in a transparent and open process, giving confidence to companies like Amazon that their project will get built on time.”

In November 2024, the Governor signed Executive Order 2024-04, creating the Pennsylvania (PA) Permit Fast Track Program to streamline the Commonwealth’s permitting process for key economic development and infrastructure projects, increase transparency, and accelerate timelines to ensure state government delivers results quickly and efficiently. Through the Office of Transformation and Opportunity (OTO), the Fast Track program helps develop, manage, and coordinate permitting for complex and impactful economic development and infrastructure projects across government agencies and private partners in order to get project sponsors answers in a timely manner.

Over the past several months, the Shapiro Administration has continued to make progress in improving Pennsylvania’s permitting processes. For example, the Department of State (DOS) recently achieved one-day processing times for certain kinds of business filings – down from a processing time of eight weeks when the Governor was sworn into office.

“In 2023, Governor Shapiro directed the Department of State to improve all license processing times under our jurisdiction,”said Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt. “I’m happy to report that we’ve cut average processing times for several vital business filings, including new registrations, from several weeks to as little as one day.”

DOS’s Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations (BCCO) achieved this milestone early this year as it processed a total of 93,005 filings in one month — about 23,251 filings per week. That number represents an 84 percent increase over April 2024, when the bureau handled 50,422 filings with an average two- to four-day processing time.

During the first three months of 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reviewed and acted on more than 17,000 permit applications and ensured those permits were enforced properly by conducting more than 51,000 inspections of regulated facilities. Thanks to permitting modernization efforts under Governor Shapiro, DEP also continues to make progress on its permit backlog — announcing that it has reduced the backlog by 94 percent, from 2,400 permits to 150.

“Under the leadership of the Shapiro Administration, DEP is committed to moving at the speed of business while ensuring that Pennsylvanians are getting the environmental protections that they deserve,” said DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “We are working through the thousands of permit applications that we receive so that businesses in Pennsylvania know that they will get a decision on their application in a reasonable amount of time. At the same time, we are ensuring that the environmental protections in those permits are followed through our inspections.”

DEP is modernizing its permitting process by investing in new technology and reviewing processes to identify and eliminate bottlenecks. In January, DEP launched a Permit Tracker to allow applicants and residents to monitor the progress of permits as they move through the review process. Since 2023, DEP has also added 225 employees to carry out critical functions like public health and safety inspections and permit application reviews.

During his first two weeks in office, Governor Shapiro signed an Executive Order directing state agencies to conduct a 90-day comprehensive review of how long it was taking them to process applications for licenses, permits and certifications. Based on the review, the Governor’s Office established a date-certain for each license, permit, or certificate by which completed applications will be processed. If completed applications are not processed by that date, the agency responsible will refund the applicants their application fee. 

Launched in coordination with the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA), OTO, and the Governor’s Office of General Counsel, PAyback was designed and created to modernize the Commonwealth’s application platforms and services to better serve Pennsylvanians and to publish the recommended application processing times.

Since the launch of PAyback, state agencies including DEP and DOS have made significant progress to reduce their processing times and eliminate backlogs. As a result, applicants are experiencing greater certainty and fewer delays when they do business with the Commonwealth.

The Shapiro Administration continues to move quickly and efficiently to process permit applications, get businesses answers, and land major deals that benefit the people of Pennsylvania.

For more information about the Department of Community and Economic Development, visit the DCED website, and be sure to stay up-to-date with all of our agency news on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Governor’s Office, ra-gvgovpress@pa.gov, 717.783.1116
DCED, dcedpress@pa.gov

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