H.R. 4776 (119th): Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act or the SPEED Act

The SPEED Act would limit the scope of NEPA environmental review of major federal actions. It would bar agencies from treating an action as a major federal action based solely on federal funding, exclude certain actions already reviewed under equivalent federal, state, or tribal environmental statutes, and require agencies to consider only effects proximately caused by the immediate project. Agencies could not weigh speculative, attenuated, separate-in-time-or-place, or unrelated-project effects. The bill also changes the environmental assessment threshold and limits judicial review of NEPA cases.

Theological note: Scripture grounds civil authority in justice, stewardship of creation, and care for neighbors, including those affected by development. Permitting and environmental review rules bear on stewardship and on fair treatment of communities, but this bill mainly adjusts the procedural scope of review and the pace of federal projects. The issue is relevant to prudent stewardship and general equity, not to a direct moral verdict on the measure.

• Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
• Lane: economic_development. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: environmental_review. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: permitting. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: regulatory_reform. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
• Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
• Roll 352: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Vote type: amendment.
• Roll 353: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Vote type: amendment.
• Roll 354: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Vote type: amendment.
• Roll 355: On Motion to Recommit. Vote type: recommit.
• Roll 356: On Passage. Vote type: final_passage.
• Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill is a generic regulatory and permitting reform. It pursues real prudential goods, namely faster and more predictable infrastructure and reduced duplicative review, while raising legitimate concerns that narrowing environmental analysis and judicial review could weaken protection of communities and creation. No direct moral harm is named in the operative summary, so it falls within the mixed or prudential category rather than good or evil.
• Theological note: Scripture grounds civil authority in justice, stewardship of creation, and care for neighbors, including those affected by development. Permitting and environmental review rules bear on stewardship and on fair treatment of communities, but this bill mainly adjusts the procedural scope of review and the pace of federal projects. The issue is relevant to prudent stewardship and general equity, not to a direct moral verdict on the measure.

Debt and war Cloture and Tier 1 Procedural votes Scoring mechanics