May 28, 2025
— Public lands liquidation pulled after intense public pressure —
The America the Beautiful for All Coalition has been closely tracking the budget reconciliation process to understand how it will impact our priorities to save nature, uphold public health, and support justice for communities. On Thursday, May 22, House Republicans capitulated to political pressure from the White House to pass a massive spending plan that cuts health care and safety net programs while exploding the nation’s debt to deliver tax cuts to billionaires. While ostensibly a spending and tax bill, the House-approved bill eviscerates protections for air, land and water. Now, the bill will be considered by the U.S. Senate, where stricter procedures could help remove some of the worst parts of the bill.
“This proposal sacrifices the health, safety, and stability of working-class families to solely benefit polluters and the ultra-wealthy at a time when the United States is grappling with rising inflation, ecosystem degradation, unprecedented climate disasters, and persistent gaps in healthcare access. It abandons our clean energy future, undermines public health protections, and exacerbates the inequities that the working-class communities struggle to overcome every day,” said Mark Magaña, Founding President and CEO of GreenLatinos, and America The Beautiful For All Coalition Co-Chair. But he closed by saying Americans can still push on the Senate to curb the House’s excesses.
Here’s the top 5 ways the House sold out nature and the environment in their budget bill:
Let’s polluters ‘pay-to-pollute' and skip permitting and engagement with communities prior to starting harmful projects like drilling and mining, essentially gutting the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act,
Requires the government to open our coasts and oceans to drillers to help raise money to pay for billionaire tax cuts,
Repealing clean energy and community investments from the Inflation Reduction Act that are helping communities adapt to climate change, lowering energy costs, and creating sustainable jobs,
Opens the Arctic and public lands to drilling, logging and mining,
Suspends the methane pollution fee that polluters pay, endangering the health of frontline communities by increasing their exposure to harmful air.
One silver lining: the final House version of the bill omitted a controversial amendment sponsored by GOP Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah. Their proposal would have allowed for public land sales in four Nevada counties and one in Utah — including lands near Zion National Park. Several House and Senate Republicans, including Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, had complained about language that would sell or swap hundreds of thousands of acres in Utah and Nevada. “This was my San Juan Hill; I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands,” Zinke said. “Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land.”
This blog will be updated as events arise. Media may contact us for more information.
