119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 573 
AN ACT 
To require the Council on Environmental Quality to publish 
an annual report on environmental reviews and causes 
of action based on alleged non-compliance with the Na-
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Studying NEPA’s Im-
pact on Projects Act’’. 
SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORT ON NEPA’S IMPACT ON PROJECTS. 
Section 201 of the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4341) is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘SEC. 201. ANNUAL REPORTS ON NEPA’S IMPACT ON 
PROJECTS. 
‘‘(a) SUBMISSIONS BY LEAD AGENCIES.—Not later 
than July 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, the head of 
each lead agency shall submit to the Council on Environ-
mental Quality a report on— 
‘‘(1) each civil action alleging an agency action 
in violation of this Act that was active during the 
period beginning June 1 of the preceding year and 
ending June 1 of the current year, which shall iden-
tify— 
‘‘(A) with respect to each such civil ac-
tion— 
‘‘(i) the defendant lead agency, where 
applicable, and each plaintiff; and 
‘‘(ii) the court in which the civil action 
was brought and any court to which a deci-
sion on the civil action was appealed;
‘‘(B) the number of such civil actions, 
disaggregated by the defendant agency, with a 
single entry denoting the lead agency, where ap-
plicable, for cases involving multiple Federal 
agency defendants; 
‘‘(C) the alleged basis for each such civil 
action, disaggregated by covered sectors; and 
‘‘(D) the status and outcome, if applicable, 
of each civil action alleging an agency action in 
violation of this Act that was active during the 
period beginning June 1 of the preceding year 
and ending June 1 of the current year, includ-
ing whether— 
‘‘(i) the civil action resulted in a deci-
sion to hold unlawful and set aside the 
agency action within the meaning of sec-
tion 706(2) of title 5, United States Code; 
‘‘(ii) the civil action resulted in a deci-
sion allowing the Federal agency to pro-
ceed with the major Federal action; 
‘‘(iii) the civil action resulted in an 
order remanding the matter to the agency 
for reconsideration without vacating the 
analysis;
‘‘(iv) any claim under the civil action 
was resolved by a settlement agreement or 
consent decree between any plaintiff and 
the defendant lead agency; 
‘‘(v) the civil action is still active; and 
‘‘(vi) any of the plaintiffs received an 
award, including an award of costs pursu-
ant to section 2412 of title 28, United 
States Code, except that if such informa-
tion is received after the lead agency sub-
mits the applicable report to the Council 
on Environmental Quality, the lead agency 
shall include such information in the sub-
sequent report; 
‘‘(2) the length of environmental impact state-
ments made publicly available pursuant to section 
102(2)(C) during the period of 5 years that ends on 
June 1 of the current year, which shall include— 
‘‘(A) the average and median page count of 
all such environmental impact statements (not 
including the page count of any citations or ap-
pendices), 
including 
such 
page 
counts 
disaggregated by quartiles;
‘‘(B) the average and median page count 
of any citations and appendices included in 
such environmental impact statements; 
‘‘(C) the number of such environmental 
impact statements, disaggregated by lead agen-
cy and subagency as applicable; 
‘‘(D) a description of trends in average 
and median page count of such environmental 
impact statements and any citations and appen-
dices included in such environmental impact 
statements compared to prior reports published 
by the Council on Environmental Quality; and 
‘‘(E) for each report submitted under this 
section through 2028, a disaggregation of the 
data from before and after the date of the en-
actment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 
2023; 
‘‘(3) an estimate of the cost to prepare the envi-
ronmental impact statements described in paragraph 
(2), including— 
‘‘(A) the full-time equivalent personnel 
hour costs, contractor costs, and other direct 
costs of the lead agency that prepared the envi-
ronmental impact statement; and
‘‘(B) if practicable, and noted where not 
practicable, the costs incurred by cooperating 
agencies, participating agencies, any project 
sponsor that prepared an environmental impact 
statement under the supervision of the lead 
agency, and contractors; and 
‘‘(4) the timelines to complete environmental 
impact statements pursuant to section 102(2)(C) 
during the period of 10 years that ends on June 1 
of the current year, which shall include— 
‘‘(A) with respect to each major Federal 
action commenced during such period of 10 
years, the date on which (as applicable)— 
‘‘(i) the project sponsor submitted an 
application for any permit or other author-
ization for the project; 
‘‘(ii) the lead agency began the 
scoping; 
‘‘(iii) the notice of intent to prepare 
the environmental impact statement was 
made publicly available; 
‘‘(iv) the environmental impact state-
ment was made publicly available; 
‘‘(v) the record of decision was made 
publicly available; and
‘‘(vi) the lead agency provided to the 
project sponsor notice to proceed on the 
project; 
‘‘(B) the average and median completion 
timelines during such period of 10 years for 
each document described in subparagraph (A); 
‘‘(C) a description of trends in completion 
timelines during such period of 10 years for 
such documents compared to prior reports pub-
lished by the Council on Environmental Quality; 
and 
‘‘(D) for each report submitted under this 
section through 2033, a disaggregation of the 
data from before and after the date of the en-
actment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 
2023. 
‘‘(b) PUBLICATION AND SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY 
THE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Council on Environ-
mental Qualify shall annually— 
‘‘(A) publish the reports received under 
subsection (a) on the website of the Council on 
Environmental Quality; and 
‘‘(B) submit such reports to the Committee 
on Natural Resources of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Environ-
ment and Public Works of the Senate. 
‘‘(2) INCLUSION
IN
OTHER
REPORTS.—The 
Council on Environmental Quality may carry out 
paragraph (1)(B) by including the reports received 
under subsection (a) in the report submitted under 
section 107(h). 
‘‘(3) PUBLIC
AVAILABILITY
OF
DATA.—The 
Council on Environmental Quality shall publish with 
each report published under paragraph (1)(A) the 
underlying data used to prepare each such report 
and include any citations or other information nec-
essary for the public to locate records related to the 
court proceedings for any civil action described in 
subsection (a)(1). 
‘‘(c) FORMAT.—To the extent practicable, the infor-
mation included in each report submitted to the Council 
on Environmental Quality under subsection (a) shall be 
disaggregated by covered sector. 
‘‘(d) COVERED SECTOR DEFINED.—In this section, 
the term ‘covered sector’ means any of the following sec-
tors: 
‘‘(1) Aviation and space. 
‘‘(2) Broadband. 
‘‘(3) Carbon capture and sequestration.
‘‘(4) Conventional energy production. 
‘‘(5) Electricity transmission. 
‘‘(6) Forestry. 
‘‘(7) Information technology infrastructure. 
‘‘(8) Manufacturing. 
‘‘(9) Mining. 
‘‘(10) Pipelines. 
‘‘(11) Ports and waterways. 
‘‘(12) Renewable energy production. 
‘‘(13) Surface transportation. 
‘‘(14) Water resources. 
‘‘(15) Any other sector as determined by the 
Council on Environmental Quality or lead agency.’’. 
Passed the House of Representatives December 9, 
2025. 
Attest: 
Clerk.