On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill H.R. 1 into law. The bill is the worst assault on nature, environmental justice, and community health that we have seen in our generation. The President and Republican lawmakers have set in motion an aggressive leasing schedule for mining, logging, and drilling hundreds of millions of acres of public lands and waters. The bill also includes resources to revive the dying coal industry. Here’s our Executive Director’s reflection on what happened, and what's next.

What Happened?

The votes

The U.S. Congress complied with President Trump’s request to send the finalized budget reconciliation bill to him for signature by July 1, 2025. In the Senate, the vote was 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) were the three Republicans who voted against the bill. All Senate Democrats and the Independents who caucus with them voted against the bill. In the House, every Republican except Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted for the bill, and it passed with a four-vote margin. 

Why this bill matters

Our Coalition members come from diverse walks of life, yet we are sharing an experience of pain and extreme whiplash upon the passage of H.R. 1. Our country has made an abrupt, dramatic turn away from the recent substantial investments in saving and restoring nature, environmental justice, and health, which were made possible by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. 

At a time when several other countries pursue the goal of conserving 30 percent of the world’s lands and waters by 2030, this bill will set our country back significantly. 

At a time when we understand better than ever the true deadly costs of continuing to extract and use fossil fuels, this bill rolls back the federal royalty rates for oil and gas leasing, making it cheap for large corporations to extract from our lands and waters.

At a time when we should be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and conserving natural ecosystems, this bill requires dangerous oil and gas drilling on 

At a time when we should be paying special attention to some of our country’s most dynamic, rich, unique ecosystems, this bill requires aggressive oil and gas lease sales in special places like the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

At a time when we should be saving old-growth forests and planting a lot more trees, this bill will require the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to approximately double the amount of logging allowed, and lock in long-term timber contracts for 20 years. 

While our coalition is not centered around issues of healthcare, food security, or immigration, we do our work in communities. We anticipate our communities will feel the pain of the several harmful ripple effects of healthcare cuts, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts, and a dramatically increased budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). An estimated 11 million Americans will lose health insurance and 22.3 million families (including more than three million children) will lose nutrition assistance. Immigrants and all of us who live and work in community with immigrants are in a state of fear as our communities are being militarized by ICE. 

Several coalition members and allies have listed adverse impacts of the bill in detail. Please check out: Center for Western Priorities, NRDC,  

Our coalition members’ role

This big bad budget outcome was not because of any lack of trying by America the Beautiful for All Coalition members and allies. It has been an all-hands-on-deck approach on multiple fronts to stopping the worst provisions of the bill – for the ocean, wildlife, public lands, freshwater ecosystems, and more. Several members of the Coalition met with their members of Congress, both in-district and on Capitol Hill, regarding the very grim projected impacts the bill will have on our respective communities.

While the bill is overwhelmingly damaging, it could have been worse. It is important to note the wins for we who love nature, environmental justice, and community health. Most notably, our Coalition and allies stopped the threat of millions of acres of public lands from being sold off, proposed by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) in the Senate version of the bill, and Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV-2) with Rep. Maloy (R-UT-2) in the House version. While threats come from other directions, the final version of the bill does not mandate mining in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, or the construction of Ambler Road in Alaska.

Why Nature and Our Communities Can’t Wait

Some will say to be patient and wait for the political tides to turn in favor of our priorities. We cannot afford to wait. The America the Beautiful for All Coalition was founded in 2022 to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises by forging strategic, equitable alliances to save nature and benefit communities that have suffered disproportionate impacts for too long. We are taking action as if our lives depend on it – because they do. A scientific report released just weeks before the passage of H.R. 1 shows the world may overshoot the important 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming tipping point sooner than expected – possibly as soon as three years from now. Our way of life will change dramatically when our climate and ecosystem stability further degrades. Safe drinking water, healthy air, safety from climate-fueled disasters like floods and wildfires, and the ability to spend time outdoors all depend on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems. The America the Beautiful for All Coalition is a meeting place for people working proactively for thriving nature and communities. We are moving forward enacting hope as a verb.

What’s Next

Center relationships

This is hard. Counteract burnout. Let’s nurture our relationships with nature, community, and self. For me, this looked like spending time outdoors with family on the day the big awful bill was signed into law. And going forward, it includes prayer, managing my social media as well as news consumption, and intentionally holding caring listening space for others’ grief, frustrations, and fears. It also includes practicing joy – including outdoors. 

Spending time in nature not only is proven to be good for our mental and physical wellbeing. It can inspire us in ways we might not anticipate. In the words of my former boss and mentor former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, “Nature shows up for us every day. We have to show up for nature every day.” The time is now to join forces and lean on each other be wise, creative, and brave. 

What our Coalition member organizations’ leaders want us to do 

We recently had a call with leaders of Coalition member organizations, and we conducted some live polling. Here’s what our members would like to prioritize in the near term.

August Recess Issue Priorities: What to Spotlight

• Push back on harmful cuts and policies: Oppose DOGE cuts, public lands sell-offs, and defunding land and science agencies. Spotlight oil/gas drilling, monument rollbacks, roadless rule rollback, deep sea mining, and logging giveaways. Defend the ESA, protect the Antiquities Act, and fight ICE abuses. 

• Highlight funding and resource equity. Oppose subsidies for wood/biomass production. 

• Demand justice for communities. Center rural and frontline communities as a bipartisan priority. Advocate for bringing back agency staff. Highlight threats to due process, including ICE-related abuses.

• 
  

How to Mobilize Together

Coordinate Public Pressure Campaigns: Launch unified media campaigns and keep the momentum going with calls, emails, and social posts—even to Congressional allies. Flood Congressional offices with outreach to show widespread, urgent public demand. Use show-and-tell tactics to illustrate real-world impacts.

Focus Messaging on Key Issues: Use “People’s Lands” messaging to reframe threats like the public lands sell off. Highlight the harms of leasing, logging, and DOGE cuts.

Engage and Mobilize Supporters: Engage newly activated audiences and give supporters tangible actions. Leverage personal networks to amplify actions.

Unite Around Shared Goals and Communities: Identify and uplift the communities each group serves. Demonstrate that bipartisan action is possible when the stakes are high. Push for public land management agency funding.

Prepare for the Long Game: Create conditions on the ground that will be more favorable. 

Coalition Orgs Can Support One Another

• Share tools, language, targets and social media resources to help everyone move faster and more effectively.

• Pool resources—staff time, funding opportunities, legal support—and amplify each other’s efforts.

• Use coalition spaces (like the AtB4A listserv or convenings) to coordinate messaging and campaigns intentionally.

• Invite each other into trainings, learnings, and convenings to grow collective capacity.

• Celebrate wins and learn from setbacks—transparency builds trust.

Join the America Beautiful For All coalition.