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 yr creating and finalizing its complete price range 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, individuals 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 embrace any of the proposals that may have set a brand new precedent for the sale of federal public lands. As an illustration, a Senate proposal would have offered greater than two million acres throughout the West with restricted public enter, doubtlessly endangering important habitat by opening it to improvement.

The ultimate invoice additionally preserved, and in some circumstances 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 assist 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, akin 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 decreasing the reliability of our electrical grid and rising electrical energy prices for shoppers nationwide.

The ultimate invoice additionally repeals devoted funding for the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that helps coastal resiliency initiatives that restore and keep vital sea and shorebird habitats, and mandates expanded oil and fuel lease gross sales in ecologically delicate components 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 decreasing the environmental opinions undertaken earlier than initiatives are accredited.

As we transfer ahead, Audubon stays dedicated to working with lawmakers in a bipartisan style 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 price range reconciliation

Proposed Laws	Last Invoice	Audubon Stance
Ambler Highway – Potential improvement of a street threatening pristine ecosystems in Alaska	Not included in invoice	Audubon opposes Ambler Highway improvement
Alaska Oil & Gasoline Leasing – Mandated oil and fuel 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 tens of millions of acres of Bureau of Land Administration (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands for housing improvement	Not included in invoice	Audubon opposed the required sale of BLM and USFS lands
Renewable Vitality on Public Lands – Will increase hire and charges for wind power by not less than 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 improvement
Clear Vitality Tax Credit – Elimination of key tax incentives for wind, photo voltaic, and power storage	Phasedown by way of 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 Vitality Manufacturing Credit score – Removing of assist for home clear power manufacturing	Phasedown starting in 2031 and ending in 2033, wind power parts 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 parts
Forest Legacy Program – Lower funding to assist 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 tens of millions 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 Packages – Continued funding and assist for EQIP, RCPP, CSP, ACEP and different applications	Future funding elevated for agriculture applications Important 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 elimination 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 flexibility for authorized evaluation of issued permits.	Undertaking sponsors will pay for expedited evaluation for a federal environmental evaluation and allow Courts could 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 guaranteeing courts could evaluation challenge permits for authorized compliance