Laws like the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act are critical to the safe water and healthy environment that millions of people enjoy today. But right now, Congressional Republicans are working to gut them. With their introduction of two new bills, the SPEED and PERMIT Acts, our environment is under greater threat than ever.

This month, the House of Representatives will vote on these bills, and they could move quickly to the Senate in the New Year. We must act fast to stop them. These bills are part of a deregulatory agenda that is an explicit assault on our country’s most successful environmental laws.

We face new and growing threats, from forever chemicals to fossil fuel pipelines to factory farm waste. We must fortify our defenses, not blow holes in them. But rather than crack down on industrial water pollution, House Republicans are voting to enable it. We can’t let this happen. 

Here’s what’s at stake.

The PERMIT Acts Clears the Way for Dirty Water

Since its passage in 1970, the Clean Water Act has led to tremendous progress in cleaning up our waterways. Not too long ago, polluted rivers caught fire. While we have a long way to go to ensure clean water for everyone, today, many more Americans can trust the lakes they swim in and the water they drink from their taps. 

The PERMIT Act would gut this bedrock law in several key ways. 

The Clean Water Act protects many kinds of U.S. waterways, from streams to lakes to massive rivers. The PERMIT Act would carve major loopholes to exclude whole categories of waters from its protections. 

The PERMIT Act would also create Clean Water Act exemptions for Big Ag’s pollution. We would see more pesticides, fertilizers, and animal waste pouring into our waterways. And it would allow corporate polluters to release PFAS “forever chemicals” into waterways without telling regulators.

The PERMIT Act would also drastically limit the say that states and Tribes have in fossil fuel projects built in their jurisdictions. This would speed up the building of dangerous, polluting gas pipelines, like the Constitution Pipeline in New York, and limit considerations of the dire impacts that polluting infrastructure may have on residents.

This is just a handful of the many ways the PERMIT Act would roll back the clock on clean water protections. Congressional Republicans who vote for the PERMIT Act make their aims crystal clear: They want us to return to an era of industrial polluters having their way with our waters, and people and the environment will pay the price. 

The SPEED Act Threatens Transparency and Accountability for Polluting Projects

While the PERMIT Act attacks the Clean Water Act, the SPEED Act attacks the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA created a vital system for environmental review before any federal agency can give a major project the green light. 

Notably, this environmental review process requires input from local communities that will be most affected by the project. It requires agencies to study and disclose potential harms and to engage us, the public, in this process before they approve the project. 

The SPEED Act would weaken NEPA by drastically limiting the scope of what kind of projects need environmental review. This could allow federally backed factory farms to build and expand without any transparency or accountability. 

It also shortens the timeline to challenge weak reviews. Many developers turn in shoddy work on these reviews, and people can challenge them before the project breaks ground. By shortening the timeframe for these challenges, the SPEED Act would make it much harder for people and the Courts to hold developers and agencies to the law.

But most egregiously, the SPEED Act completely turns NEPA on its head. It would require agencies to prioritize corporate interests over public interests.

Without NEPA reviews, projects like fossil fuel pipelines and factory farms will be able to get away with more pollution with less oversight. The public deserves to know the potential harms of a project and hold corporations to the law. 

Tell Congress: Protect Our Water from Corporate Polluters!

The PERMIT and SPEED Acts are blatant plays at boosting corporate profits at the expense of our communities. While corporations enjoy faster timelines, lower costs, and a bigger bottom line, we’ll pay the price through more pollution. 

These bills directly threaten our health. We know that fossil fuel, agricultural, and PFAS pollution have created public health crises across the country. Families are losing their loved ones so corporations can cut corners and offload their costs onto us.

These bills would also lead to more water contamination, which requires more expensive treatment. This will drive up the cost of keeping our drinking water safe and deepen our country’s affordability crisis. 

If lawmakers pass these bills, they’ll send a clear message: They care more about polluting industries than the health of their constituents. It’s critical that Congress rejects them and puts our water, health, environment, and futures first.