Huffman Leads Fight Against Most Extreme Anti-Environment Bill in American History

May 08, 2025

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, Ranking Member Jared Huffman led House Natural Resources Committee Democrats to reject House Republicans’ scorched-earth plan in the Committee’s portion of the Republican reconciliation package. Their bill will sell off our lands, waters, and wildlife to fund tax cuts for billionaires and promote their extreme partisan agenda. While House Republicans remained silent at the markup, Huffman, alongside his Democratic colleagues, presented a unified front to protect our communities, the American taxpayer, and our most cherished places.

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Ranking Member Huffman addresses Republicans’ betrayal to our environment and the American people

Republicans had the opportunity to support common sense safeguards and improve the legislation, but they instead rejected multiple Democratic amendments, including:

  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendments (#20 and #35) protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Boundary Waters.
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#247) striking the section creating a “pay-to-play” process for NEPA.
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#36) striking out all provisions parallel to Project 2025
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#105) redirecting funds to support international conservation
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#39) preventing offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#102) prohibiting funds from being used to procure seafood originating or processed in countries identified for failure to address illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, bycatch of marine wildlife, or shark management.
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#197) requiring tribal consultation before approving Ambler Road.
  • Ranking Member Huffman’s amendment (#106) blocking the bill from go into effect until the Office of Inspector General submits a report on Elon Musk’s conflict of interest.

A full list of amendments offered by Committee Democrats and blocked by Republicans can be found here

Ranking Member Huffman spent the entire reconciliation markup holding Republicans accountable for their anti-environment agenda, proposing alternative legislative action to improve our public lands, and leading debate to address the issues impacting the American people on the ground. The Republicans, on the other hand, stayed quiet during the reconciliation markup – silently promoting extensions of Project 2025 while doing nothing to help the communities that will be impacted by these reckless policies.

House Republicans are squandering Americans’ money, health, and safety to pad polluters’ pockets. Specifically, this bill:

  • Instantly boosts big oil and gas company profits by letting them drill and frack at bargain-basement prices while robbing taxpayers blind.
  • Puts polluters before people by letting the wealthy companies pay for legal immunity for inadequate environmental reviews and slapping Americans with exorbitant fees to protest oil and gas pollution.
  • Slashes funding for critical and popular public services like NOAA’s coastal restoration and resilience efforts and the National Parks workforce, making it harder forAmericans to protect their communities from natural hazards and visit our nation’s most scenic and inspiring places.
  • Locks up 4 million acres for unprofitable coal mining – more land than the entire state of Connecticut – taking our energy policy back to the 19th century.
  • Mandates dirty mining and drilling deals that will create toxic disasters in our nation’s most pristine lands and waters, permanently polluting places like the Boundary Waters and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Crushes clean energy development by jacking up fees for wind and solar while slashing fees for oil and coal.
  • Wipes out protections for endangered species, including dooming the planet’s most endangered whale to extinction by waiving all sensible safeguards for offshore oil and gas operations.
  • Sells off public lands to pay for handouts to big oil and tax cuts for billionaires – a surprise, late-night amendment paves the way for a fire sale of public lands.

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