Federal Policy

Update: The House of Representatives passed the budget bill and President Trump signed it into law on July 4.

Late Tuesday morning the Senate narrowly passed its budget reconciliation bill in a 51–50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The bill is now back in the House, where representatives have to resolve differences with the Senate version, which they hope to do before the 4th of July.

Public land sales were removed from the Senate bill after immense public outcry, which is a huge win. Thank you to all that raised your voice and championed these shared landscapes.

But the legislation would still have horrific impacts on many Wyoming Outdoor Council priorities, including public lands, tribal conservation, and energy and climate. Here are a few of the most troubling provisions.

Oil and Gas Free-For-All

The Senate bill would cut the public out of having a say in oil and gas leasing on our public lands. It would also cost Wyoming a lot of money in lost royalties.

Royalty rates for oil and gas drilling had been raised during the Biden administration. This bill would lower them back down to 12.5% — the rate they had been since 1920 — which by some estimates cost Wyoming up to $3.6 billion in lost revenue between 2013 and 2022.

The bill also strips the Bureau of Land Management of its discretion to say no to proposed oil and gas lease sales. It doesn’t matter if local communities, hunters, anglers, or ranchers have concerns; the BLM would be required to lease any eligible parcel of public land nominated by industry — an outright affront to multiple use.

Clean Energy Tax Credits Axed

The good news: The Senate bill removed a harmful excise tax that would have unfairly targeted solar and wind projects.

The bad news: Both the House and the Senate have opted to eliminate home energy efficiency tax credits for projects that go into service after the end of 2025. As a result, rooftop solar, residential heat pumps, and home insulation or weatherization upgrades will cost everyday Wyomingites up to 30% more than they would have otherwise.

Businesses, nonprofits, communities, and tribes would have a little more time to take advantage of existing tax credits: they would have to begin construction within a year after the bill’s passage. Still, both the House and Senate versions of the bill include a rapid phase-down of these tax credits, which would drastically harm the clean energy industry and eliminate good paying jobs.

Tribal FUNDING GUTTED

The bill cuts over $700 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs — basically one-quarter of BIA’s budget — including programs for economic development and land consolidation. This is a flagrant disrespect of treaty rights and tribal sovereignty, and the impacts for tribal members will be massive.

“These cuts are being carried out without any tribal consultation whatsoever, in plain violation of our trust and treaty responsibilities. This is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people — it is also a question of the law.”

– Senator Brian Schatz

For decades, tribal communities were made promises in exchange for the land that created states like Wyoming — including that they would receive housing, health care, and infrastructure development services, as well as access to safe drinking water. With this bill, the federal government would be reneging on those promises.

Locally, the BIA’s Wind River Agency in Fort Washakie manages 2.2 million acres of land, including mountain ranges, river and stream corridors, and a vast landscape of sagebrush within the Wind River Indian Reservation. This is an already underfunded agency, which handles everything from oil and gas permitting to Environmental Policy Act analysis to water on tribal lands. Losing that capacity at BIA would effectively stymie vital projects in tribal communities.

The bill would also cut $617 million from the Indian Land Consolidation Program, which was developed to help right historical wrongs surrounding land ownership. The program has made it possible to return millions of acres of lands to tribal ownership. With the proposed budget bill, Congress would be unilaterally deciding that the program would end — absent tribal consultation or understanding of the implications it poses for tribes and their communities.

Tribal Energy and Water Programs Slashed

The budget bill cuts funding from multiple loan programs that were aimed at financing energy infrastructure projects in tribal communities, including solar. The Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program in particular has been crucial for advancing energy self-determination and creating economic opportunities in Indian Country. Without these programs, tribes will find it substantially more difficult to develop their energy resources, improve grid reliability, and transition to cleaner, more affordable energy.

The Senate bill would also cut a drastic 90% of funding from a program that helps states and tribal communities access safe drinking water. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund provides funding for water infrastructure and safety projects. Tribal nations would go from receiving $22.5 million collectively in the current fiscal year to a mere $2 million next year.

This catastrophic reduction would jeopardize the ability of each tribe’s water departments to provide safe and clean drinking water. With significantly constrained resources, critical functions like well water testing and maintaining drinking water facilities in communities like Fort Washakie, Ethete, and Arapahoe would be impacted. The proposed cuts could lead to layoffs of essential workers responsible for water quality oversight, jeopardizing public health and the long-term sustainability of water infrastructure on tribal lands.

Assault on the Land and Water Conservation Fund

The Great American Outdoors Act, passed in 2020, allocated $900 million annually to increase public access and protect the nation’s public lands. Congress is now seeking to divert roughly 43% of that money away from conservation, recreation, and sportspeople access and towards deferred maintenance of infrastructure instead, even though other federal funds have been allocated for deferred maintenance.

In a Nutshell

Although some of the provisions in the Senate bill dampen some of the worst impacts of the earlier House version, we anticipate that the bill’s overall impact will increase energy costs for Wyomigites, make diversification of our energy sector more challenging, and increase the emissions that science is clearly telling us need to go down in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

What the heck even is reconciliation — and how it could impact the things we care about?

It’s hard to get legislation through the U.S. Senate because of the filibuster: Senators can literally kill bills by talking them to death. To get around this, Congress often relies on something called “reconciliation,” which lets budget-related bills pass with a simple majority.

In recent years, we’ve seen the process of reconciliation used more and more frequently due to congressional gridlock and polarization in the Senate. Congress is in the midst of the budget reconciliation process right now, and the resulting legislation could have major impacts on Wyoming’s landscapes and communities.

The House of Representatives fiercely debated various spending changes, including investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and the sale of public lands to help fund the cost of tax cuts. As the Senate develops its version of the bill, we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on what transpires. We are here to keep you informed on what’s happening and how it may impact our lands, water, wildlife and communities here in Wyoming.

Public lands sell-off narrowly avoided … for now

Throughout this spring, Congress toyed with the idea of selling public lands in order to help pay for tax cuts. This threat was taken seriously by several public lands champions in the Senate, who introduced an amendment in early April that would have prevented the sale of public lands from being included in the budget reconciliation process. This amendment unfortunately failed (both Wyoming senators voted against it) and shortly afterward the House Natural Resources Committee added the sale of roughly a half million acres in Nevada and Utah to the House reconciliation bill.

Though this sale dealt with neighboring states, Congress could have just as easily included the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres in Wyoming. The use of the budget reconciliation process to sell off public lands is unprecedented. It disallows public input and testimony, the cash from the sale would not go to conservation (as typically occurs with land sales), and it sets an ugly precedent for selling our national public lands to pay for the whims of politicians.

Outraged public lands enthusiasts from across the country spoke up and demanded Congress not use this means for balancing the budget. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), Rep. Ryan Vasquez (D-New Mexico), and other representatives from outside our state drew a hard red line and were able to have these sales removed.

Land management plans in the crosshairs

The Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which would provide significant protections for important areas of the Northern Red Desert, has been in the crosshairs of some lawmakers as of late. Fortunately, a provision that would block its implementation was stripped out of the House reconciliation bill. Although it’s unlikely that the provision will be included again in the Senate version, we expect to see ongoing efforts to scale back the protections in the plan through administrative processes.

Clean energy tax credits on the chopping block

Longstanding clean energy tax credits that make solar, wind, and battery storage more affordable were removed in the House reconciliation bill. These incentives have driven investments in technologies like carbon capture and clean hydrogen and have helped Wyoming businesses and families afford rooftop solar and energy efficiency upgrades. The House bill would eliminate many of these credits with significant consequences to Wyoming communities and tribes.

If enacted, clean energy projects could become 30–40 percent more expensive. The bill also targeted residential energy efficiency tax credits that were established in 2005 under the Bush Administration. These credits have helped Wyoming homeowners afford energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, windows, and HVAC systems.

The timing for these cuts couldn’t be worse. Utilities in Wyoming are already proposing double-digit rate hikes while warning of rising demand and grid challenges. Cutting these credits now will increase costs for families, make it more difficult to invest in local clean energy projects like rooftop solar, and weaken Wyoming’s energy resilience.

While the future of many federally funded programs that promote clean energy and energy efficiency remains uncertain, several key initiatives the Wyoming Outdoor Council has been monitoring appear to be making progress. For example, some programs funded through the Inflation Reduction Act have had their funds “obligated,” making them much harder to eliminate entirely. Although certain funds have been temporarily frozen — causing frustration — they now seem to be becoming more accessible.

Nuclear energy emerges as a winner

The nuclear energy industry would continue to qualify for production tax credits under the House reconciliation bill. It would also make the nuclear industry the only energy sector to maintain the “transferability” of tax credits — a benefit that gives project developers the ability to sell their tax credits to others. For those tracking the active discussion around nuclear energy in Wyoming, it’s clear that this industry is emerging as a favorite for the Trump Administration as a way to meet new energy demand and remain competitive with other countries developing new kinds of reactors. We’ll be carefully watching these developments to better understand how these incentives translate into more proposals around nuclear energy in Wyoming.

What’s next for WOC’s public lands and clean energy priorities?

The removal of public land sales from the House reconciliation bill was a big sigh of relief for public lands users. However, bad public lands provisions could still be included in the Senate version of the bill. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long advocated for the privatization of public lands.

On the clean energy side, now is the time to let our senators know that you support clean energy and longstanding common-sense programs designed to encourage energy conservation and efficiency like the residential energy efficiency tax credits.

As the reconciliation process continues through the summer, we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the Senate. Wyoming has an important role to play. As one of the largest energy exporters in the country, the Cowboy State will find itself in the crosshairs. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more news.