The Action Versus No Action Act, HR 184

Video Description

Agencies spend enormous amounts of time trying to protect documents against lawsuits instead of carrying out urgently needed management activities on the ground. The result is that projects become trapped in an endless cycle of analysis, objections, appeals, and litigation while hazardous conditions worsen year after year. Doing nothing is not a neutral decision. It is a management decision, a choice — and increasingly, it is the most destructive decision possible. Every year we delay treatment, forests become more overgrown and stressed. Every year of delay means hotter fires, larger fires, more destruction, and higher suppression costs borne by taxpayers. H.R. 184 addresses this problem with a straightforward and commonsense reform. The bill simply says that for certain hazardous fuels reduction and forest management projects, agencies should focus their environmental review on two alternatives: the proposed action and the no-action alternative. Instead of forcing agencies to spend years studying endless permutations of management options, this bill restores NEPA to what it was originally intended to be: a decision-making tool, not a procedural weapon used to indefinitely obstruct projects through delay and litigation. Legislative hearing, H.R. 184 (McClintock) House Natural Resources Committee, May 21, 2026.