May 13, 2025

Ann Mesnikoff

Reconciliation Debate Comes for Public Lands

Midwestern advocates speak out in defense of the Great Lakes as the House Natural Resources Committee plans major cuts

There is so much happening at the federal level right now it is head-spinning and frankly hard to keep track. But if you care about this country’s wild & natural places, it’s worth keeping track of what the House Natural Resources Committee is doing to gut good government. Given the committee’s jurisdiction over public lands including our National Parks, National Forests, and water resources, in addition to jurisdiction over mineral extraction and mining on public lands, it’s not hard to imagine how harmful actions in this committee could be.

Major Cuts Will Hurt Public Lands

Last week, the committee “debated” its piece of the Republican’s massive Reconciliation package. While the main goal will be to advance President Trumps costly tax cuts, the overall package will have far reaching damaging impacts for public lands, coastal resiliency, national forests and turning review under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) into a pay-to-play scheme.

Here’s how the Republican-led committee described their action this week:

“Today, committee Republicans took decisive action and advanced our portion of the one big, beautiful reconciliation bill. We’re generating more than $18.5 billion in new revenue and savings for the American people by unleashing the United States’ abundant natural resources. These budgetary measures will deliver on President Trump’s agenda to make our nation energy dominant today and into the future. I’d like to thank all of our committee members for their tireless work on this legislation, and I look forward to supporting it through the legislative process.”

Despite their lofty language, this bill is bad. It would open up more fragile ecosystems to damaging oil and gas exploitation, undermine the ability of the public to engage in environmental reviews, cut funding for NOAA’s coastal resiliency programs, and erode our National Forests.

Day-Long Hearing to Highlight the Horrors

With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate it is hard to block really bad policies from moving forward in Reconciliation. But the Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee did their best to ensure their Republican colleagues on the Committee and the public would at least hear about how damaging the policies would be and offered amendment after amendment. In a hearing that lasted from 10:00 AM until after midnight, the Republicans held to a gag order, rarely responding, not debating, and not defending the provisions in their bill.

Here’s one photo from around 9 pm on May 7th – while the Democrats were going strong.

Great Lakes Advocates Speak Out

ELPC joined many colleagues in opposing aspects of the package. In particular, here is a letter opposing provisions that would harm our National Forests and another on the plan to rescind funds for NOAA’s coastal resiliency work which directly impacts the Great Lakes.

Read Letter on NOAA Coastal Resiliency

Read Letter on National Forests

When it comes to strong Great Lakes voices on the House Natural Resources committee, we have on powerful voice – Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Rep. Dingell spoke up again and again and again for the Great Lakes – whether it was an amendment to support sea lamprey control that had been delayed and hindered due to DOGE actions (here), an amendment in support of NOAAs important role in climate resiliency and opposing a claw back needed funds (here), access to public lands and protecting the Great Lakes (here) more. You can also check out Rep. Dingell’s full opening statement here.

The only amendment that passed on a party-line vote was one offered by Rep. Amodei to authorize the sale of public lands for development in Nevada.

Next Steps

The House Natural Resources Committee’s text will be combined with those of other committees. Earlier in May, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee released Reconciliation text which included punitive annual fees on electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. This is a multifaceted attack on common-sense climate-smart policy.

Stay tuned! This week the Energy & Commerce Committee, the Agriculture Committee and the Ways & Means Committee will all be taking up their sections of the Republican Reconciliation bill with threats to undermine public health and food support programs (SNAP), while rolling back key clean energy related tax credits.