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CIVIC HERALD
HR 4776 · 119th Congress · HouseIn committee

SPEED Act

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

In plain language: This bill accelerates federal permitting for energy, transportation, and construction projects by narrowing the scope and duration of environmental reviews. Agencies would only evaluate immediate, directly caused environmental impacts rather than distant, future, or indirect effects, and they could no longer pause approvals to wait for newly published scientific studies. Additionally, the bill limits the public's ability to challenge project approvals in court by setting a 150-day lawsuit deadline, restricting lawsuits to commenters who can prove direct personal harm, and allowing project work to proceed while agencies correct procedural errors.

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Issues

What this bill touches.

Pollution & development−65Regulation (cross-sector)−55

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Provisional: our reading of who it affects, pending review.

Who it helps

  • Farm Service Agency loan applicantsExcludes Farm Service Agency farm ownership and operating loan guarantees from being treated as major federal actions subject to NEPA environmental review (Sec. 2(f)(2)(A)).provisional
  • Permit applicants and project sponsorsLimits environmental reviews to immediate, direct impacts, aligns the review's purpose with applicant goals, requires applicant approval for deadline extensions, bars agencies from altering completed reviews without a court order, and allows approved projects to remain active during court-ordered remands (Sec. 2(b), Sec. 2(c), Sec. 3).provisional

Who it burdens

  • Litigants challenging environmental reviewsShortens the window to file lawsuits to 150 days, requires prior submission of detailed comments demonstrating direct harm, raises the legal standard needed to overturn an agency decision to abuse of substantial discretion that altered the outcome, bars challenges to categorical exclusions, and prevents courts from halting agency actions during remands (Sec. 3).provisional
  • Federal courtsMandates strict 180-day deadlines for district courts to issue final judgments after receiving the administrative record and 180-day deadlines for appellate courts to decide appeals, while limiting available remedies upon remand (Sec. 3).provisional
  • Federal agencies participating in environmental reviewsRestricts comments to matters strictly within their legal jurisdiction, bars them from preparing environmental documents if the lead agency decides none is required, and limits lead agencies from undertaking or requiring new post-application research (Sec. 2(b)(3)(B), Sec. 2(c)(1)).provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) is coming in a later phase.

What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

Provisional: our reading of what the bill does, pending review.

Show all 18 provisions

  1. Establishes that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is purely procedural and does not mandate specific environmental outcomes or grant substantive legal rights.

    Sec. 2(a)provisional

  2. Exempts proposed federal actions from NEPA review if they satisfy another law with similar review requirements or have already completed an equivalent state or tribal environmental review.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  3. Limits the scope of NEPA reviews to direct and proximately caused effects of the immediate project, excluding speculative, geographically or temporally distant, or separate future impacts.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  4. Excludes Farm Service Agency farm loans, previously evaluated permits, and actions supported solely by federal funding or grants from being classified as major federal actions subject to NEPA.

    Sec. 2(f)provisional

  5. Restricts judicial review of NEPA claims by allowing courts to invalidate actions only if the agency committed an abuse of discretion that would have altered the outcome, and forbids courts from substituting their judgment.

    Sec. 3provisional

  6. Requires that agency actions remain in effect during court remands and limits remand correction schedules to no more than 180 days.

    Sec. 3provisional

  7. Sets a 150-day statute of limitations for filing NEPA lawsuits, limits standing to parties who submitted detailed public comments showing direct harm, and bars challenges to categorical exclusions.

    Sec. 3provisional

  8. Relieves agencies from conducting new scientific or technical research after receiving an application, or unless the research is essential to evaluate alternatives and can be obtained within reasonable time and cost.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  9. Prohibits federal agencies from withdrawing, canceling, or altering a completed environmental review document unless ordered by a court.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  10. Restricts cooperating agency comments to matters within their legal authority and bars other agencies from conducting reviews if the lead agency determined none was required.

    Sec. 2(c)provisional

  11. Permits agencies to disregard scientific research published after a permit application or notice of intent is filed, and bars delaying decisions to await new information.

    Sec. 2(c)provisional

  12. Requires environmental review statements of purpose and need to align with the applicant's goals.

    Sec. 2(c)provisional

  13. Requires applicant consent to extend review deadlines and limits the applicant's right to challenge missed deadlines if they approved the extension.

    Sec. 2(c)provisional

  14. Extends the maximum period an agency may rely on a programmatic environmental review document from 5 years to 10 years.

    Sec. 2(d)provisional

  15. Allows federal agencies to adopt categorical exclusions enacted by Congress.

    Sec. 2(e)provisional

  16. Directs the Council on Environmental Quality to include energy considerations in its official duties.

    Sec. 2(g)provisional

  17. Imposes deadlines requiring federal courts to rule on NEPA challenges within 180 days of receiving the record, and appellate courts to decide appeals within 180 days.

    Sec. 3provisional

  18. Specifies that the standalone completion of an environmental assessment, environmental impact statement, or categorical exclusion determination does not constitute a final agency action subject to judicial review.

    Sec. 3provisional

  1. Establishes that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is purely procedural and does not mandate specific environmental outcomes or grant substantive legal rights.

    Sec. 2(a)provisional

  2. Exempts proposed federal actions from NEPA review if they satisfy another law with similar review requirements or have already completed an equivalent state or tribal environmental review.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  3. Limits the scope of NEPA reviews to direct and proximately caused effects of the immediate project, excluding speculative, geographically or temporally distant, or separate future impacts.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  4. Excludes Farm Service Agency farm loans, previously evaluated permits, and actions supported solely by federal funding or grants from being classified as major federal actions subject to NEPA.

    Sec. 2(f)provisional

  5. Restricts judicial review of NEPA claims by allowing courts to invalidate actions only if the agency committed an abuse of discretion that would have altered the outcome, and forbids courts from substituting their judgment.

    Sec. 3provisional

  6. Requires that agency actions remain in effect during court remands and limits remand correction schedules to no more than 180 days.

    Sec. 3provisional

  7. Sets a 150-day statute of limitations for filing NEPA lawsuits, limits standing to parties who submitted detailed public comments showing direct harm, and bars challenges to categorical exclusions.

    Sec. 3provisional

How your members of Congress line up

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The record

How members voted on SPEED Act.

Recorded roll calls on this bill, most recent first. Open one to see each member's position.

  • House · Dec 18, 2025 · YEA-AND-NAY

    On Passage · Passed

    Source →

  • House · Dec 18, 2025 · YEA-AND-NAY

    On Motion to Recommit · Failed

    Source →

Timeline

How it moved.

Show all 35 actions
  1. Dec 18, 2025Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  2. Dec 18, 2025Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  3. Dec 18, 2025On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 221 - 196 (Roll no. 356). (text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR H6037-6040)
  4. Dec 18, 2025Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 221 - 196 (Roll no. 356).
  5. Dec 18, 2025On motion to recommit Failed by the Yeas and Nays: 206 - 211 (Roll no. 355).
  6. Dec 18, 2025The previous question on the motion to recommit was ordered pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XIX.
  7. Dec 18, 2025Ms. Lee (NV) moved to recommit to the Committee on Natural Resources. (text: CR H6068)
  8. Dec 18, 2025The previous question was ordered pursuant to the rule.
  9. Dec 18, 2025The House rose from the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union to report H.R. 4776.
  10. Dec 18, 2025The House resolved into Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for further consideration.
  11. Dec 18, 2025Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H6065-6069)
  12. Dec 18, 2025Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union rises leaving H.R. 4776 as unfinished business.
  13. Dec 18, 2025On motion that the committee rise Agreed to by voice vote.
  14. Dec 18, 2025Mr. Westerman moved that the committee rise.
  15. Dec 18, 2025POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Roy amendment No. 6, the Chair put the question on agreeing to the amendment and by voice vote, announced the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Huffman demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings until a time to be announced.
  16. Dec 18, 2025DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 951, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Roy amendment No. 6.
  17. Dec 18, 2025POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Roy amendment No. 5, the Chair put the question on agreeing to the amendment and by voice vote, announced the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Huffman demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings until a time to be announced.
  18. Dec 18, 2025DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 951, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Roy amendment No. 5.
  19. Dec 18, 2025POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Clyde amendment No. 1, the Chair put the question on agreeing to the amendment and by voice vote, announced the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Huffman demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings until a time to be announced.
  20. Dec 18, 2025DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 951, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Clyde amendment No. 1.
  21. Dec 18, 2025GENERAL DEBATE - The Committee of the Whole resumed general debate on H.R. 4776.
  22. Dec 18, 2025GENERAL DEBATE - The Committee of the Whole proceeded with one hour of general debate on H.R. 4776.
  23. Dec 18, 2025House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union pursuant to H. Res. 951 and Rule XVIII.
  24. Dec 18, 2025The Speaker designated the Honorable Carol D. Miller to act as Chairwoman of the Committee.
  25. Dec 18, 2025Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632 and H.R. 4371. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, under a structured rule and H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632, and H.R. 4371 under a closed rule. The resolution provides one motion to recommit on each bill.
  26. Dec 18, 2025Considered under the provisions of rule H. Res. 951. (consideration: CR H6029-6044)
  27. Dec 16, 2025Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 951 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632 and H.R. 4371. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, under a structured rule and H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632, and H.R. 4371 under a closed rule. The resolution provides one motion to recommit on each bill.
  28. Dec 15, 2025Supplemental report filed by the Committee on Natural Resources, H. Rept. 119-395, Part II.
  29. Dec 4, 2025Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 344.
  30. Dec 4, 2025Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-395.
  31. Nov 20, 2025Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 18.
  32. Nov 20, 2025Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
  33. Sep 10, 2025Committee Hearings Held
  34. Jul 25, 2025Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
  35. Jul 25, 2025Introduced in House
  1. Dec 18, 2025Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  2. Dec 18, 2025Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  3. Dec 18, 2025On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 221 - 196 (Roll no. 356). (text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR H6037-6040)
  4. Dec 18, 2025Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 221 - 196 (Roll no. 356).
  5. Dec 18, 2025On motion to recommit Failed by the Yeas and Nays: 206 - 211 (Roll no. 355).
  6. Dec 18, 2025On motion that the committee rise Agreed to by voice vote.
  7. Dec 16, 2025Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 951 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632 and H.R. 4371. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4776, under a structured rule and H.R. 1366, H.R. 845, H.R. 3616, H.R. 3632, and H.R. 4371 under a closed rule. The resolution provides one motion to recommit on each bill.
  8. Dec 4, 2025Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-395.
  9. Nov 20, 2025Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 18.
  10. Jul 25, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

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Sources & provenance

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Cite this page

Civic Herald. “SPEED Act (H.R. 4776, 119th Congress).” https://civicherald.app/bills/119-hr-4776. Congress.gov record as of Jul 13, 2026.

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