Bill > HR4776

This bill, known as the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, proposes significant reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline and clarify environmental review processes for federal agency actions. The bill aims to reduce bureaucratic delays by establishing specific timelines for agency reviews, limiting the scope of environmental assessments, and constraining judicial review. Key provisions include requiring agencies to complete environmental reviews within set timeframes, restricting the consideration of speculative or distant environmental effects, preventing agencies from rescinding environmental documents without court order or applicant agreement, and limiting the grounds on which authorizations can be revoked. The bill also modifies judicial review procedures, imposing stricter filing deadlines for legal challenges, requiring courts to defer to agency judgments, and mandating that courts can only remand agency actions with specific instructions and without vacating the entire action. Additionally, the bill provides new provisions for how agencies can rely on previously completed environmental reviews and expands the circumstances under which projects can be categorically excluded from comprehensive environmental assessments. The overall intent is to make environmental review processes more predictable, efficient, and less prone to prolonged legal challenges while still maintaining environmental considerations in federal decision-making.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4776/all-info