House committees are in the process of writing their pieces of their budget reconciliation bill. This bill has the potential to become one of the most harmful, costly and sweeping pieces of legislation in recent history. With their extremely narrow majority, and a president whose approval numbers are in steep decline, House Republicans have to decide whether they stand with billionaire executives or hardworking families who stand to face job loss, dirtier air and water, and increased costs from this extreme legislation. Read our post on what’s at stake for a deeper dive into key issues we’re watching out for.

LCV is at these committee markups, watching closely so we can make sure people in Washington and back home in members’ districts are hearing and seeing what is happening as this bill takes shape. We will provide key updates as they happen here.

Tuesday 5/6 Updates

Natural Resources Committee

What We’re Watching:

How many of our public lands will they sell off to polluting interests? We expect to see attempts to sell off our public lands and waters to the highest bidder to fund tax cuts for Big Oil executives and billionaires. Public lands enjoy widespread support and are engines of local economies, generating billions of dollars in revenue and supporting countless jobs in surrounding communities. The sell-off of our public lands is extremely unpopular and threatens the rights of all Americans to access nature, have clean air to breathe and water to drink, and to safeguard their culture and history.

Latest Updates:

9:32 House Natural Resources: Rep. Dexter offers an amendment to get rid of protest fees that would burden the every day person and impede the public input. “Right now under the Mineral Leasing Act the public has a voice. Tribal members and communities can file formal protest to challenge oil and gas leasing decisions made by the Bureau of Land Management. This empowers local communities to express their views on large extractive projects being built in their on backyards. But this bill tries to silence that voice. It would impose a $150 fee to just file a protest…who will be most impacted by these protest fees? You will. Members of the public. Those of you who are hunters and anglers, private landowners, even your local elected officials who simply want to voice your opinion on matters that impact you.”

8:35 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Stansbury offered an amendment to stop drilling in the Arctic Refuge and provide protections for subsistence resources of Alaska Native tribes. “Nothing in this title shall undermine or negatively impact subsistence resources as identified by Alaska native tribes…this is particularly important for the Gwich’in who depend on the subsistence resources that are part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Porcupine Caribou clan has relied on the Porcupine Caribou herd which travels into [the Refuge] every year for thousands of years. The Gwich’in People, their identity, their culture, their religion, their way of life is completely tied to the migration of Porcupine Caribou.”

4:35 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Neguse amendment on public lands sell off:

“The amendment would prohibit funds in this bill from being used to facilitate the large-scale fire sale of our public lands…Americans treasure our public lands and we ought to be pursuing policies in this committee that is consistent with those values and in my view is a commitment that’s been sacrosanct for the American public in preserving our public lands. this bill falls far short of those ideals and, quite the opposite, tramples all over them and in my view this would be a simple commonsense way of addressing the issue.”

On the amendment, Rep. Huffman adds: “We aren’t selling fee titles but we are auctioning off massive areas and in some cases not even to the highest bidder to very low bidders or no bidders.”

Rep. Ansari also adds: “It doesn’t matter what political party you’re from, you likely believe that we should have public lands preserved and not accessible to additional drilling and mining.”

3:35 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Neguse offers amendment to prohibit funding from being used to reduce or eliminate national monuments. “Coloradans treasure our public lands. And the vast majority of Americans feel the same way. That is why I’m offering this amendment to prevent any of the funds being made in this bill from being used to shrink or revoke the boundaries of any existing national monuments. We all know the threats posed to our national monuments and public lands is real. We see that evidenced in the budget plan that was released by the Trump administration last week, which paired drastic budget cuts for national monuments and parks and public lands with a call for deep reductions to undo and revoke national monuments…It is critical to protect these treasured public lands, which is why I offer this amendment.”

2:35 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers amendment that would remove provision that would allow Big Oil and polluters to pay for environmental reviews that would in turn shield them from any accountability and judicial review. “Once the payment is made, the companies are shielded from any lawsuits even if the environmental review is flawed – even if the public never had a meaningful chance to weigh in – even if serious health or environmental concerns are overlooked and undisclosed – even if there was zero Tribal consultation…This provision in the bill allows polluters to side step the rules, avoid any legal accountability, just by writing a check…let’s call it what it is – a pay to play scheme that says if you have enough money the law doesn’t apply to you. If you cut a big enough check, you can cut out the check of the courts. My amendment will strike this section in full.”

2:17 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers an amendment to prevent mining royalty giveaways and ensure foreign mining companies mining public lands in the U.S. pay a royalty. “This bills is full of giveaways to polluters including slashing fossil fuel royalties to subsidize Big Oil and coal with billions of tax dollars that should go to states but that doesn’t even get close to the sweetheart deal that the mining industry has gotten for over 150 years. Unlike oil, gas, or coal, hardrock miners have never had to pay a royalty at all for the publicly owned minerals that they extract. They take minerals that belong to the American people, they take them for free, they sell them on the global market and too often they try to pass the cost of cleaning up after themselves right back to the American taxpayers. By some estimates the mining industry has extracted $300 billion worth of publicly owned minerals, minerals that belong to us, since the mining law of 1872 was passed way back in the Grant administration.”

1:15 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers amendment to compel a report by the Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General to submit a report of Elon Musk’s conflict of interest. “Elon Musk is no ordinary government official. He’s the richest man in the world – CEO of multiple companies that do billions of dollars in business with the federal government – and now he leads the very office that’s slashing agency budgets, eliminating staff, and reviewing operations across departments that oversee contracts with his businesses. Under Musk’s leadership DOGE has reportedly laid off at least 1300 employees at NOAA, an agency that provides critical climate and atmospheric data. At the same time SpaceX, one of his companies is expanding its footprint in earth observation and weather satellite services. We’ve learned that DOGE officials have unrestricted access to NASA’s personnel and contracting files, which could include the confidential and proprietary information of his competitors. If Musk’s companies like SpaceX are able to use this access to gain an advantage over their competitors, it would not be just unethical, it would be illegal. Musk’s companies have already received $20 billion in taxpayer funded contracts and subsidies…At the same time, Musk is at the same time working to dismantle the very oversight and accountability mechanisms designed to ensure that federal contracts serve the public interest instead of his interests.”

12:30 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers amendment that highlights the environmental injustices and health crisis facing frontline communities along the Gulf of Mexico due to the expansive fossil fuel industrial complex in the region. His amendment would require agencies to take into account the cumulative impacts of fossil fuels on the health of Gulf communities and would prevent new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico until cancer rates are in line with the national average.

12:25 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers amendment to strike any provisions in this bill that is reflected in Project 2025, which Republicans distanced themselves from because it was so wildly unpopular with the American people. Provisions like drilling in the Arctic Refuge, on lowering oil and gas royalties, on increasing coal mining, on mining near the Boundary Waters wilderness, on dismantling environmental review processes that safeguard communities.

12:15 PM House Natural Resources: Rep. Huffman offers amendment to keep in place protections from mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most visited wilderness in the country. “Some places are just too special to mine. This is one of them.”

11:52 AM House Natural Resources: Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-02) introduced two amendments to remove the mandate to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and replace it with his bill, that Arctic Refuge Protection Act, which would designate the Refuge as wilderness and protect it from future drilling.

11:09 AM House Natural Resources: Rep. Maxine Dexter (OR-3): “This bill gives rich companies a green light to pay off the government and avoid any accountability for keeping our environment safe and the American people will have no say about it. These are the people’s lands, not the lands of the rich. And who pays the price?  Everyday Americans. The communities downwind from a refinery. The families living next to a drilling site. The Tribes who have fought to protect their sacred lands for generations. And our children who will inherit a world where profit was prioritized over protection.”

10:58 AM House Natural Resources: Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-07): “Republicans want to turn national parks and sacred sites into oil fields and strip mines – no clean-up required. It is reckless, dangerous and an insult to frontline and tribal communities. Big Oil doesn’t need another handout. They’re making record profits while Americans pay the price with polluted air, risking health risks, and climate disasters.”

10:48 AM House Natural Resources: Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03) said, “We are here under the guise of doing something for the deficit…but this bill will increase deficit by trillions. This isn’t about the deficit. It’s about taking advantage of this moment to jam through some of the worst environmental laws that this congress will have seen.”

10:35 AM House Natural Resources: Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-02) said “Americans see all of this. But they also see Democrats standing up for their right to clean air, healthy environment, and responsible stewardship of public lands and policies that serve the public interest not just big money polluters and profiteers.”

10:15 AM House Natural Resources: As the markup gets underway, advocates standing up for the Arctic, our communities, and our public lands and waters during the the House Natural Resources Committee markup of the budget reconciliation bill.

10:08 AM House Natural Resources: Last night, LCV sent this letter urging opposition to the House Natural Resource Committee’s legislation.

10:00 AM House Natural Resources: The House Natural Resources Committee is holding their markup this morning, Tuesday, May 6, at 10:15 AM. You can watch the live stream of the meeting here.