Streamlining Permitting to Boost Economic Development and Lower Energy Costs

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a federal law from 1969 that requires the assessment of potential environmental impacts before certain federal actions, including action on energy and infrastructure projects, can move forward. While originally intended to balance environmental concerns with economic development, the NEPA process has grown unreasonably and oppressively complex.

Drawn out NEPA review processes and constant legal battles significantly hinder critical energy production, infrastructure projects, forest management, and more across the country, stalling ready-to-go projects that could benefit Americans, create jobs, and lower costs.

By stalling energy production and projects, America’s permitting process is standing in the way of making sure Americans have access to reliable and affordable energy at a time when our energy demand is on the rise. 

It is vital that we cut the burdensome bureaucracy and unnecessary litigation impeding energy infrastructure development and streamline permitting so America can get back to building, ensuring we have reliable access to the energy we need. Permitting reform presents a significant opportunity to foster economic growth, increased wages, and improved affordability for working families.

Today, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation that reforms NEPA to simplify and streamline the permitting process, shortening timelines for permitting approvals, preventing frivolous lawsuits, and restoring NEPA to its intended scope.

H.R. 4776, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, sponsored by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, reforms the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline the permitting process and agency procedures by restricting NEPA lawsuits to parties impacted by a project, putting in place reasonable filing deadlines, and restoring NEPA to its original purpose and scope. 

House Republicans are working to lower energy costs and establish global energy dominance – will Democrats join us, or instead vote to bring America closer to an energy crisis?
  
Correcting the Rosemont Decision and Supporting Critical Mining Projects

In May 2022, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision repealing an approved plan for Rosemont Copper-Mine Project. This decision upended decades of precedent by prohibiting the long-standing practice of using adjacent lands for mining support activities like rock waste disposal or processing. This faulty decision is commonly referred to as the “Rosemont decision.”

This misguided and harmful decision threatens hardrock mining and critical mineral projects across Western states rich with minerals, such as Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho, by forcing all ancillary mining operations to happen on mineral-rich lands. 

These critical mineral projects are important to securing our manufacturing and energy futures, as well as decreasing our dependence on imports from foreign adversaries.

Now more than ever, we should be promoting mining operations and domestic energy production in states with rich mineral resources – not upending responsible mining projects and practices under the false guise of protecting the environment.

Rep. Mark Amodei’s legislation, H.R. 1366, the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act, undoes the damaging Rosemont decision, allows mining operations to continue as they have historically under the law, and protects the communities and jobs supported by this industry.

House Republicans will continue working to secure essential mineral supply chains and responsibly harvest our abundant natural resources. 
Ending Taxpayer Funding for Transgender Surgeries for Children

In May 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a reporthighlighting serious concerns about medical interventions to transition an individual away from their biological sex, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, in children and adolescents. The HHS report highlighted significant and irreversible risks, such as infertility, that result from such interventions while noting weak evidence of benefit to the child. 

These dangerous and irreversible medical interventions forever alter a person’s body and come with serious risks – and this is what far-left activists are pushing on our nation’s children. 

Today, House Republicans are bringing legislation to protect children from irreversible, unproven, and life-altering procedures and treatments that are not medically necessary while also promoting fiscal responsibility. 

Our legislation prohibits the use of Medicaid funding for gender transition procedures such as surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers intended to alter a minor’s biological sex while maintaining funding for medically necessary treatments for conditions including early puberty, genetic disorders, and life-threatening conditions. 

Medicaid’s limited resources should not be used to permanently alter the body of a minor – these taxpayer dollars should only be used for scientifically-based and medically necessary care. 

H.R. 498, the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, sponsored by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, prevents federal Medicaid funding being used for gender transition procedures that are not medically necessary for individuals under 18 years old.

House Republicans are working to ensure hardworking Americans are not forced to pay for dangerous, irreversible gender transition procedures for minors. 
Delisting the Recovered Gray Wolf Species

Across the lower 48 states, the gray wolf species has clearly recovered from their once extremely endangered status. Recent scientific analysis has shown their population to be healthy and sustainable from a multitude of threats. As such, it is time for the species to be delisted and returned to state management.

In the Great Lakes region, which claims the largest concentration of gray wolves here in the lower 48 states, there are around 4,200 wolves, and the current population is well past delisting recovery goals. In fact, the delisting recovery goals for gray wolves “have been met since at least 1994,” according to Nathan Roberts, former wildlife biologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

Furthermore, the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations all took actions to delist the gray wolf: In 2013, the Obama Administration proposed delisting the species; in 2020, the Trump Administration published a rule removing the gray wolf as a protected species that was later vacated by a U.S. District Court; and most recently, the Biden Administration appealed the vacated Trump 2020 rule. 

While the last three presidential administrations agreed that it is time to delist the gray world, activist judges and radical environmentalists continue to block the removal of the gray wolf from the endangered species list. We should be focusing on allocating resources and taxpayer dollars to species that need to recover, not keeping an already recovered species on the list.

Additionally, allowing the recovered gray wolf population to continue to grow completely protected and unchecked poses an immediate threat to livestock, farmers, pet owners, residents, and more. 

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s legislation, H.R. 845, the Pet & Livestock Protection Act, would require the Secretary of the Interior to reissue regulations delisting the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List in the lower 48 states and ensure this decision is not subject to judicial review. 

House Republicans are standing with farmers, ranchers, and landowners and delisting gray wolves as an endangered species.