I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4776 
To amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to clarify ambig-
uous provisions and facilitate a more efficient, effective, and timely 
environmental review process. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 25, 2025 
Mr. WESTERMAN (for himself and Mr. GOLDEN of Maine) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
to clarify ambiguous provisions and facilitate a more 
efficient, effective, and timely environmental review proc-
ess. 
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 ‘‘Standardizing Permit-
ting and Expediting Economic Development Act’’ or the 
‘‘SPEED Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. NEPA REFORM. 
(a) PURPOSE.—Section 2 of the National Environ-
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘The purposes’’ and inserting 
the following: 
‘‘(a) The purposes’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(b) This Act is a purely procedural statute intended 
to ensure Federal agencies consider the environmental im-
pacts of their actions during the decisionmaking process. 
This Act does not mandate particular results, and only 
prescribes a process. Nothing in this Act shall be con-
strued to mandate any specific environmental outcome or 
result, nor shall this Act be interpreted to confer sub-
stantive rights or impose substantive duties beyond proce-
dural requirements.’’. 
(b) PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINATION OF LEVEL OF 
REVIEW.—Section 106 of the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4336) is amended— 
(1) in the heading, by inserting ‘‘; SCOPE OF 
REVIEW’’ after ‘‘LEVEL OF REVIEW’’; 
(2) in subsection (a)— 
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘or’’; 
(B) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘action.’’ 
and inserting ‘‘action;’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(5) the proposed agency action is an action for 
which such agency’s compliance with another stat-
ute’s requirements serve a similar function as the re-
quirements of this Act with respect to such action; 
or 
‘‘(6) the proposed agency action— 
‘‘(A) relates to a project or action that has 
already been reviewed pursuant to a State or 
Tribal environmental review statute; and 
‘‘(B) the lead agency determines such re-
view meets the requirements of this Act.’’; 
(3) in subsection (b)— 
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘does 
not’’ and inserting ‘‘is not likely to’’; and 
(B) in paragraph (3), by amending sub-
paragraph (B) to read as follows: 
‘‘(B) is not required to— 
‘‘(i) undertake new scientific or tech-
nical research unless the new scientific or 
technical research is essential to a rea-
soned choice among alternatives, and the 
overall costs and time frame of obtaining it 
are not unreasonable; or 
‘‘(ii) undertake new scientific and 
technical research after the receipt of an 
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