II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1191
To amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to require the
Council on Environmental Quality to publish an annual report on envi-
ronmental reviews and causes of action based on alleged non-compliance
with that Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Mr. C
URTIS(for himself and Mr. KELLY) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public
Works
A BILL
To amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
to require the Council on Environmental Quality to pub-
lish an annual report on environmental reviews and
causes of action based on alleged non-compliance with
that Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Studying NEPA’s Im-4
pact on Projects Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•S 1191 IS
SEC. 2. CEQ ANNUAL REPORT ON NEPA’S IMPACT ON 1
PROJECTS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 201 of the National Envi-3
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4341) is amend-4
ed to read as follows: 5
‘‘SEC. 201. CEQ ANNUAL REPORT. 6
‘‘(a) T
ITLEI DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the 7
terms ‘categorical exclusion’, ‘cooperating agency’, ‘Coun-8
cil’, ‘environmental assessment’, ‘environmental impact 9
statement’, ‘participating Federal agency’, ‘lead agency’, 10
and ‘major Federal action’ have the meanings given those 11
terms in section 111. 12
‘‘(b) R
EPORTREQUIRED.—Beginning on July 1, 13
2025, the Council shall annually publish on the website 14
of the Council, and submit to the Committee on Environ-15
ment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee 16
on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives, a 17
report on— 18
‘‘(1) each cause of action based on alleged non- 19
compliance with this Act that was active during the 20
period beginning on June 1 of the preceding year 21
and ending on June 1 of the current year (referred 22
to in this subsection as the ‘covered year’), which 23
shall identify— 24
‘‘(A) with respect to each cause of action— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•S 1191 IS
‘‘(i) the defendant lead agency and 1
the lead plaintiff; and 2
‘‘(ii)(I) the court in which the cause 3
of action was brought; and 4
‘‘(II) any court to which a decision on 5
the cause of action was appealed; 6
‘‘(B) the number of causes of action, 7
disaggregated by the defendant lead agency; 8
‘‘(C) the alleged basis for each cause of ac-9
tion, disaggregated by type; and 10
‘‘(D) the status and outcome, if applicable, 11
of each cause of action, including whether— 12
‘‘(i) the cause of action resulted in the 13
major Federal action being reversed; 14
‘‘(ii) the defendant lead agency was 15
allowed to move forward with the major 16
Federal action; 17
‘‘(iii) the court issued a ruling direct-18
ing the defendant lead agency to take addi-19
tional measures to be in compliance with 20
this Act; 21
‘‘(iv) the lead plaintiff and the defend-22
ant lead agency entered into a settlement 23
agreement; 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•S 1191 IS
‘‘(v) the cause of action is still active; 1
and 2
‘‘(vi) the lead plaintiff received an 3
award, including an award of costs pursu-4
ant to section 2412 of title 28, United 5
States Code; 6
‘‘(2) the length of environmental impact state-7
ments and environmental assessments prepared pur-8
suant to sections 102(2)(C) and 106(b)(2), respec-9
tively, during the covered year, which shall include— 10
‘‘(A) the average and median page count of 11
each draft and final environmental impact 12
statement and environmental assessment (in-13
cluding the appendix) published in the Federal 14
Register during that covered year, including the 15
page counts disaggregated by quartiles; 16
‘‘(B) the number of draft and final envi-17
ronmental impact statements and environ-18
mental assessments published in the Federal 19
Register during that covered year, 20
disaggregated by defendant lead agency and 21
subagency, as applicable; and 22
‘‘(C) a description of trends in average and 23
median page counts of draft and final environ-24
mental impact statements and environmental 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•S 1191 IS
assessments published in the Federal Register 1
during that covered year as compared to prior 2
reports published by the Council; 3
‘‘(3) the total cost to prepare the environmental 4
impact statements and environmental assessments 5
described in paragraph (2), including— 6
‘‘(A) the full-time equivalent personnel 7
hour costs, contractor costs, and other direct 8
costs of the lead agency that prepared the envi-9
ronmental impact statement or environmental 10
assessment; and 11
‘‘(B) if practicable, and noted where not 12
practicable, the costs incurred by cooperating 13
agencies, participating Federal agencies, appli-14
cants, and contractors; 15
‘‘(4) the timelines to complete environmental 16
impact statements pursuant to section 102(2)(C) 17
during the covered year, which shall include— 18
‘‘(A) with respect to each major Federal 19
action commenced during that covered year, the 20
date on which, as applicable— 21
‘‘(i) the project sponsor submitted an 22
application for any permit or other author-23
ization for the project; 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•S 1191 IS
‘‘(ii) the lead agency began scoping 1
for the project; 2
‘‘(iii) the notice of intent to prepare 3
the environmental impact statement was 4
published in the Federal Register; 5
‘‘(iv) the draft environmental impact 6
statement was published in the Federal 7
Register; 8
‘‘(v) the final environmental impact 9
statement was published in the Federal 10
Register; 11
‘‘(vi) the record of decision was pub-12
lished in the Federal Register; and 13
‘‘(vii) the lead agency provided to the 14
project sponsor notice to proceed on the 15
project; 16
‘‘(B) the average and median publication 17
timelines during that covered year for each doc-18
ument described in subparagraph (A); 19
‘‘(C) a description of trends in completion 20
times during that covered year for those docu-21
ments as compared to prior reports published 22
by the Council; and 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•S 1191 IS
‘‘(D) the number of Federal actions evalu-1
ated in each document described in subpara-2
graph (A) during that covered year; and 3
‘‘(5) a comprehensive list of categorical exclu-4
sions listed in the implementing regulations for this 5
Act of each Federal agency, which shall identify— 6
‘‘(A) the total number of categorical exclu-7
sions listed in those regulations; and 8
‘‘(B) the total number of categorical exclu-9
sions established, adopted, or revised by each 10
Federal agency during the covered year. 11
‘‘(c) F
ORMAT.— 12
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION OF COVERED SECTOR .—In 13
this subsection, the term ‘covered sector’ means any 14
of the following sectors: 15
‘‘(A) Aviation and space. 16
‘‘(B) Broadband. 17
‘‘(C) Carbon capture and sequestration. 18
‘‘(D) Conventional energy production. 19
‘‘(E) Renewable energy production. 20
‘‘(F) Electricity transmission. 21
‘‘(G) Manufacturing. 22
‘‘(H) Mining. 23
‘‘(I) Pipelines. 24
‘‘(J) Ports and waterways. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB 8
•S 1191 IS
‘‘(K) Surface transportation. 1
‘‘(L) Information technology infrastruc-2
ture. 3
‘‘(M) Water resources. 4
‘‘(N) Forestry. 5
‘‘(O) Any other sector, as determined by 6
the Council. 7
‘‘(2) D
ISAGGREGATION.—The information in-8
cluded in each report required under subsection (b) 9
shall be disaggregated by the type of project and 10
covered sector. 11
‘‘(d) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFDATA.—The Council 12
shall publish with each report published under subsection 13
(b) the underlying data used to prepare the report and 14
include any citations or other information necessary for 15
the public to locate records relating to the court pro-16
ceedings for any cause of action described in paragraph 17
(1) of that subsection.’’. 18
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 204 of the 19
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 20
4344) is amended by striking paragraph (1) and inserting 21
the following: 22
‘‘(1) to prepare the report required under sec-23
tion 201;’’. 24
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:57 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1191.IS S1191
mprince on LAP1J3WLY3PROD with $$_JOB