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CIVIC HERALD
HR 4776 · 119th Congress · HouseIn committee

SPEED Act

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.

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

Provisionalunreviewed: impact, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affected—not determinable from the text provided
Fiscal magnitude—no CBO estimate published
Reach74provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
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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.

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.

  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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Timeline

How it moved.

  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. Dec 4, 2025Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-395.
  10. Nov 20, 2025Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 18.
  11. Jul 25, 2025Introduced in House
  12. Jul 25, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

Read it for yourself.

Read the original text →

Sources & provenance

Congress.govrefreshed 18 days ago

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