Position on H.R. 845, H.R. 1366 & H.R. 4776

H.R. 845 – Pet and Livestock Protection Act: NPCA opposes this legislation which would direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to remove endangered species protection for lower-48 gray wolves. Fewer than 1,000 gray wolves existed in the lower-48 by 1967, which led to them being listed as endangered in 1974. Slowly, with the ESA’s protection and efforts from state, federal, tribal and community partners on-the-ground, gray wolves are beginning to naturally re-inhabit national park ecosystems around the country. For the first time in decades, gray wolves have been seen in or near NPS-managed lands in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. With continued Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection, the gray wolf populations in these geographies will likely recover. H.R. 845 would threaten this recovery by applying a blanket delisting to gray wolf populations across the lower-48 states. The gray wolves of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and eastern Washington have already been delisted.

Removing endangered species protection for lower-48 gray wolves would set back recovery efforts where appropriate available habitat exists in and around national parks. Since the National Park Service (NPS) successfully reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone in 1995, research has shown the wolves have had a positive impact on the health of park ecosystems. Federal and state agency wildlife professionals, land grant university researchers, and Tribal governments have come together to manage the opportunities and challenges of restoration. H.R. 845 would cut short an ongoing wildlife recovery success story and undercut the core principles of the ESA.

H.R.1366 - Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2025: NPCA opposes this legislation, which would provide mining companies with more access to public lands to dump mine waste. This version of the bill has been improved since last Congress (e.g. the previous version of the bill would have created legal ambiguity for claimants inside of national park units). However, despite the marginal improvements there are still issues regarding the clarity of the lands to which this bill would apply. Given the current administration’s mining policies, it is likely that the mill sites in this bill would be abused by mining companies to the detriment of national parks and connected public lands.

H.R. 4776 - Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (SPEED Act): NPCA opposes this legislation, which attempts to weaken NEPA to the point it would potentially not apply to most development. This approach ignores the ongoing implementation of recent reforms that have already shortened review timelines and improved efficiency. Weakening NEPA would replace clear, science-based rules with a chaotic patchwork of agency-specific procedures, as seen in the CEQ interim final rule issued April 2025, which rescinded uniform NEPA regulations and left over 80 federal agencies to establish their own rules. The result could be longer, more litigious processes resulting in uncertainty for both project developers and communities, along with increased risk of environmental harm.

The current proposals will do little to lower costs for the average American or increase the speed of permitting or environmental review. Instead, Congress should focus on adequately funding and staffing agencies which, guided by science and public participation, can deliver permitting that is both faster and better, as evidenced by results under the IRA, CEQ’s Phase 2 rule, and FAST-41 implementation. Without these foundational investments, legislative reforms will simply shift power to corporate interests at the expense of communities and ecosystems.

National parks do not exist in isolation and what happens outside their borders can have adverse effects on the parks and their connected landscapes. Development on public lands adjacent to national parks can disrupt visitors and cause harm to the parks as well as the waters, air and wildlife that pass through them. A truly reformed permitting system must commit to science-based decision making. It is our hope that the members of this committee can agree that there are some places that are too special to develop and that guardrails for development are necessary to reduce harm as much as possible for our special places and local communities.