Congress’ Budget Bill Presents Setbacks for Habitat Conservation and Climate, While Preserving Agricultural Funding, Dropping Public Lands Sales

As Congress spent the primary half of the 12 months growing and finalizing its complete funds reconciliation invoice, H.R. 1, Audubon and its members, chapter leaders, and companions labored tirelessly to affect habitat protections, clear power, and investments in applications to learn birds, folks and our native communities. The ultimate invoice, now signed into regulation, contains provisions that span a variety of federal priorities, together with power, agriculture, and conservation.

The place we made progress: Most importantly, the ultimate invoice didn’t embody any of the proposals that may have set a brand new precedent for the sale of federal public lands. For example, a Senate proposal would have bought greater than two million acres throughout the West with restricted public enter, probably endangering important habitat by opening it to growth.

The ultimate invoice additionally preserved, and in some instances elevated, future funding for agricultural conservation applications, together with the Environmental High quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). These key applications help the conservation and restoration of habitat vital to birds on farm, ranch, and personal forest lands.

The place progress stalled: The ultimate invoice presents a number of challenges for conservation and birds, similar to a consequential setback in advancing utility-scale renewable power, by sunsetting and imposing limitations on clear power tax credit to render them unworkable over time. That is anticipated to restrict not solely the deployment of low-cost, renewable power in the US, but in addition the home manufacture of power applied sciences. These provisions threat lowering the reliability of our electrical grid and growing electrical energy prices for customers nationwide.

The ultimate invoice additionally repeals devoted funding for the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that helps coastal resiliency initiatives that restore and preserve vital sea and shorebird habitats, and mandates expanded oil and gasoline lease gross sales in ecologically delicate elements of Alaska. These provisions may weaken protections for vital chicken habitats throughout the US. Lastly, the invoice formalizes new Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act (NEPA) constraints that might impression long-established environmental protections by lowering the environmental critiques undertaken earlier than initiatives are permitted.

As we transfer ahead, Audubon stays dedicated to working with lawmakers in a bipartisan trend to advance sturdy insurance policies and investments that defend birds and the locations they want. Please learn our companion article, Looking Ahead: Advancing Habitat and Climate Progress After the Budget Bill.

How Audubon priorities fared in funds reconciliation

Proposed Laws	Last Invoice	Audubon Stance
Ambler Street – Potential growth of a street threatening pristine ecosystems in Alaska	Not included in invoice	Audubon opposes Ambler Street growth
Alaska Oil & Gasoline Leasing – Mandated oil and gasoline lease gross sales within the Arctic Nationwide Wildlife Refuge and Nationwide Petroleum Reserve–Alaska	Mandates stay – requires a number of lease gross sales over the subsequent decade	Audubon opposed the mandated lease gross sales
Sale of Federal Lands – Proposals to promote thousands and thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Administration (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands for housing growth	Not included in invoice	Audubon opposed the required sale of BLM and USFS lands
Renewable Power on Public Lands – Will increase hire and charges for wind power by a minimum of double and introduces income sharing with states and counties	Larger hire for wind power on public lands retained Income sharing with states and counties retained	Audubon opposed the elevated hire and charges for wind power Audubon supported income sharing from renewables growth
Clear Power Tax Credit – Elimination of key tax incentives for wind, photo voltaic, and power storage	Phasedown via 2028, extreme limitations on the worth of the credit score in 2026 and 2027, together with restrictions and penalties for sourcing building supplies outdoors the U.S.	Audubon opposed the elimination of tax incentives for wind, photo voltaic, and power storage
Clear Power Manufacturing Credit score – Elimination of help for home clear power manufacturing	Phasedown starting in 2031 and ending in 2033, wind power elements not eligible after 2027, contains restrictions and penalties for sourcing building supplies outdoors the U.S.	Audubon opposed the elimination of the clear power manufacturing credit score and the extra restrictions positioned on wind power elements
Forest Legacy Program – Lower funding to help forest conservation by landowners	$100M repealed from Inflation Discount Act (IRA) funding	Audubon opposed the repeal of the IRA conservation funding
Forest Landowner Help Program – Limiting technical and monetary help to small-scale landowners	Unobligated IRA funds repealed Innovation grant funding preserved	Audubon opposed the repeal of the IRA conservation funding Audubon supported the preservation of innovation grant funding
Repeal of Conservation and Restoration Funding – Funds supporting $100s of thousands and thousands in habitat restoration on public lands and waters (USFS, BLM, NPS, NOAA)	Unobligated Inflation Discount Act (IRA) funds repealed	Audubon opposed the repeal of the IRA conservation funding
Agriculture Applications – Continued funding and help for EQIP, RCPP, CSP, ACEP and different applications	Future funding elevated for agriculture applications Vital agriculture IRA funding repealed throughout different applications. Eliminated guardrails to direct funding to local weather sensible agricultural practices.	Audubon supported continued funding for agriculture conservation applications. Audubon opposed the repeal of the IRA agriculture funding and the removing of guardrails to advertise local weather sensible agricultural practices.
Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act – Permits challenge sponsors to pay for expedited challenge approvals whereas eradicating the power for authorized evaluation of issued permits.	Venture sponsors will pay for expedited evaluation for a federal environmental evaluation and allow Courts might evaluation these permits to make sure they comply with the regulation	Audubon opposed the coverage permitting challenge sponsors to pay for expedited challenge approvals Audubon supported making certain courts might evaluation challenge permits for authorized compliance