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

Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act or the SPEED Act This bill limits the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and modifies the environmental review of major federal actions under NEPA to generally limit the number of federal actions that trigger NEPA review and to expedite the review process. For example, the bill redefines major federal actions , including to specify that an agency may not determine that an action is a major federal action based solely on the provision of federal funds. It also excludes from the requirement for NEPA review certain proposed agency actions that have already been reviewed under another federal, state, or tribal environmental review statute that meets the requirements of NEPA. The bill directs an agency, when preparing an environmental document for a proposed agency action, to consider only those effects proximately caused by the immediate project or action under consideration. Agencies may not consider effects that are speculative, attenuated from the project or action, separate in time or place from the project or action, or in relation to separate projects or actions. The bill modifies the requirement for agencies to prepare an environmental assessment to apply to agency actions that are not likely to have a reasonably foreseeable significant effect on the quality of the human environment. (Currently, the requirement only applies to actions that do not have such an effect.) The bill makes a variety of other modifications to NEPA, including by limiting judicial review of NEPA cases.

## How this bill is scored

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.

## Recorded votes

Roll 352: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Yea 205 · Nay 220 · Other 14.
Roll 353: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Yea 208 · Nay 214 · Other 16.
Roll 354: On Agreeing to the Amendment. Yea 204 · Nay 217 · Other 17.
Roll 355: On Motion to Recommit. Yea 206 · Nay 211 · Other 16.
Roll 356: On Passage. Yea 221 · Nay 196 · Other 16.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-4776-119/