The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has been hailed as one of the most successful environmental statutes ever written, and has been used as a model for environmental stewardship throughout the world. One of the primary objectives of this act is to provide citizens with a voice in governmental decisions. However, recent efforts to make the NEPA process more efficient, less costly, and less time-consuming threaten to undermine achievements in public participation and participatory policy making gained during the last 30 years. This article examines public participation under NEPA and demonstrates that the recent rise in the use of the Environmental Assessment (EA) as the primary document for NEPA compliance, and the corresponding decrease in the use of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), is due to efforts to streamline NEPA as part of the overall movement to reinvent government. The article examines recent trends in NEPA implementation and public involvement requirements for EISs and EAs, and concludes that the increased use of Environmental Assessments significantly limits the public's ability to respond to environmental impacts caused by federal actions, thereby damaging one of the most effective vehicles for citizen participation in government. Finally recommendations are provided to increase opportunities for public involvement in the EA process without sacrificing improvements in efficiency.