Major Permitting Bill Has Been Tied Up In Senate For Months. What’s The Holdup?

A major permitting bill that passed the House in December 2025 still hasn’t been passed by the Senate, with environmental and clean energy groups putting pressure on lawmakers to oppose the measure.

The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, which passed the House in December 2025, aims to fast-track energy and infrastructure permitting by reforming the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It has not advanced beyond referral to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) with clean energy groups and environmental justice organizations objecting to the legislation, arguing it would cause major setbacks for the climate by adding more fossil fuel projects and lifting environmental protections.

“The American people gave Republicans this mandate because they wanted us to cut red tape in Washington and get America building again. House Republicans passed the SPEED Act to reform our broken permitting process and stop its abuses by radical environmental groups, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Senate shouldn’t allow these groups to stand in the way any longer. It’s time to get this important permitting reform to President Trump’s desk.”

Environmental and green-energy organizations lobbying against the bill included The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Sierra Club, according to OpenSecrets. Other organizations that publicly opposed the bill were the Wilderness Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). (RELATED: Congress Nears Bipartisan Permitting Reform. Hardline Republicans Argue It Threatens Trump’s Agenda)

The bill remained stalled in the Senate as key senators from the EPW negotiated provisions in the bill. Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Brian Schatz of Hawaii previously raised concerns about the bill, arguing the legislation narrowed NEPA reviews without sufficient safeguards or benefits for clean energy.

Whitehouse, the ranking member on the EPW, received over $175,000 in campaign donations from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which strongly opposes the SPEED Act. In 2023, he took a $1,000 donation from the PAC for the NRDC Action Fund and LCV-related PACs gave over $192,000 combined to Whitehouse’s campaign, joint fundraising committee and leadership PAC over a ten-year period, according to the Washington Examiner.

Heinrich received donations from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the LCV and Defenders of Wildlife. Environmental groups, such as LCV and the Environment America Action Fund, endorsed him during his most recent reelection bid in 2024.

When the SPEED Act passed the House, LCV condemned its passage and accused Republicans of supporting “harmful projects.”

“House Republicans have once again shown they are more interested in helping their fossil fuel billionaire buddies instead of working to lower utility costs for American families,” LCV said in a November statement. “The SPEED Act is another giveaway to Big Polluters that allows the Trump administration to continue its assault on clean energy while rigging the permitting process for harmful projects by cutting public input, gutting environmental protections, and blocking people’s day in court. Adequate staffing and resources delivered improvements in permitting timelines last year, and yet this bill does nothing to stop the indiscriminate firings of career civil servants or disregard for congressional direction on funding.

LCV, the Sierra Club and other groups endorsed and financially supported Schatz. Between 2025 and 2026, Schatz received $7,500 in contributions from energy and natural resources political action committees (PACs), according to OpenSecrets.

After opposing the bill for months, Whitehouse and Heinrich said in a March joint statement that they were open to negotiations on the bill, believing that speedy infrastructure permits were essential.

“After discussions with our colleagues, we have decided to reopen negotiations on permitting reform. We are hopeful that recent developments are indicative of a positive direction from the Trump administration,” the senators said in a joint statement in March. “As we move forward, we expect that there will be no further interference with already-permitted wind projects and that the initial movement we’ve seen on solar project permitting will accelerate, and other renewable projects will move forward as well. Seeing permits continuing to be approved by the administration is critical for ensuring that talks can continue. Further mischief will undo our willingness to resume negotiations.

“We look forward to working on a bipartisan bill that will speed infrastructure development, lower energy costs, and create good-paying jobs,” they continued.

Whitehouse, Heinrich and Schatz didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

In a statement, NRDC argued the bill allows the fossil fuel industry to flourish “at the expense of the public and the environment.”

“The SPEED Act isn’t about building smarter or faster—it’s about rigging the system to hand fossil fuel companies a blank check at the expense of the public and the environment,” the NRDC said in July 2025. “This bill would force agencies to ignore the reality that dirty energy projects drive climate change while dismissing the benefits of clean energy alternatives. It would ban the use of cutting-edge science, strip communities of their right to know what’s being built in their backyards, and it would even block courts from halting harmful projects when they are found to be illegal.”

In April, 73 western community, conservation, faith and Indigenous groups pressured Democratic leaders in a joint letter to reject permitting reform legislation, according to a WildEarth Guardians press release.

“Today’s Republican Congress has shown unprecedented hostility to climate, environmental, and community protections,” Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, wrote in the letter. “It is glaringly obvious that any changes to our bedrock environmental laws signed by President Trump would sacrifice far too much and compromise the imperative to foster a just and equitable transition to an economy powered by renewable energy.”

“We urge Sen. Heinrich and Sen. Whitehouse to withdraw from negotiations and stand with us and the public lands, waters, and wildlife of the West to build momentum for a progressive permit reform effort with stronger bargaining power after the mid-term elections,” Schlenker-Goodrich continued.

NEPA became law in 1970 and requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impacts of permit applications and infrastructure projects.

Democrats took issue with the bill’s limitations on judicial review for NEPA cases.

EPW did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about whether there had been any progress made on advancing the bill.

The bill passed the House with support from 11 Democrats. Several clean energy groups and Democrats withdrew their support for the bill after House Republicans added a late-stage amendment to strip permit protections for offshore wind projects to align with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

The American Clean Power Association was among the groups to rescind its endorsement in December 2025, arguing the amendment increased permitting uncertainty and could allow projects that already received permits to be cancelled if the legislation became law, according to WindTech International.

The vice president of Government Affairs for the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) told the DCNF that the Senate must pass the SPEED Act in for contractors to “deliver even the most complex construction projects.”

“Permitting reform bills like the SPEED Act provide project sponsors and contractors with greater certainty to plan, invest and deliver even the most complex construction projects. This certainty is essential to meeting the nation’s infrastructure needs. ABC urges the U.S. Senate to advance this House-passed bill and send it to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature, eliminating redundant delays and excessive permitting uncertainty that often lead to cost overruns and project setbacks,” ABC Vice President of Government Affairs Kristen Swearingen told the DCNF.

Business and energy industry groups pushed for the bill’s passage, arguing that it would help lower energy costs and meet growing demands. Lobbyists with the American Petroleum Institute (API), Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp supported the legislation.

“We applaud the House for advancing the SPEED Act, a bipartisan, commonsense step toward fixing a federal permitting system that’s long been broken,” API said in a Dec. 18 statement. “By modernizing NEPA and reducing duplicative reviews and litigation, this bill restores certainty and helps unlock the infrastructure needed to deliver affordable, reliable energy and meet growing demand. We thank Chairman Westerman and Representative Golden for their leadership, and we look forward to working with the Senate to deliver the permitting relief America urgently needs.”

API launched a seven-figure advertisement buy in September pushing lawmakers to pass permitting changes, Axios reported.

The National Mining Association, Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, Google and the Chamber of Commerce backed the legislation, according to Influence Map. Google made its endorsement during a February hearing before the US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the chairwoman of EPW, has consistently received campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and energy sector PACs. She received money from several energy-related PACs, including the American Gas Association PAC and the API PAC, according to OpenSecrets.