House Republicans succeeded Tuesday in advancing a bipartisan bill aimed at speeding up the federal permitting process, fending off a late challenge from hard-liners who wanted more power to kill offshore wind projects.
The House adopted the rule governing floor debate on several bills in a 215-209 vote. Among those bills that will now be considered on the chamber floor later this week is the so-called SPEED Act, which would overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act to remove regulatory roadblocks around building and completing energy projects.
But in order to secure the support of holdouts — led by GOP Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey — Republican leaders will have to alter a provision of the bipartisan legislation in the Rules Committee to ensure the Trump administration can continue to block offshore wind developments in these two states specifically.
This adjustment will be made as part of a separate rule paving the way for floor consideration of a health care package the Rules Committee is debating Tuesday afternoon and that the full House is expected to vote on Wednesday.
A floor vote on the SPEED Act, with the new change, is still on track for Thursday. Van Drew said it would include “really important language so we can go back and show these wind projects were rushed through and that the permitting wasn’t proper.”
Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman had included the original provision in the SPEED Act during the panel markup that would make it harder for presidents to cancel permits for any energy project. It was added to address concerns from Democrats that President Donald Trump was prepared to attack wind and solar projects — and assuage anxieties across all energy industries that their project approvals could get arbitrarily yanked depending on the party in power.
But Harris, Van Drew and others argued the provision would undermine Trump’s anti-offshore wind agenda, with which the two Republicans align.
Alongside Van Drew and Harris, the rule initially had GOP defections from Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. Leaders were able to flip all the “no” votes with the exceptions of Luna and Smith.
Other Republicans, including Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Kat Cammack of Florida, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Andy Biggs of Arizona initially withheld their votes.
Most of these members were seen huddling in long conversations on the House floor with Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer.
