Take action: The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is getting worse, not better

by | Jun 25, 2025

Grizzly bear tracks line a brown sandy beach.

Photo by Malkolm Boothroyd/malkolmboothroyd.com

Here at the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, we do our best to provide you with factual, peer-reviewed, and scientifically-supported information. And right now, the fact is the Senate’s proposed budget reconciliation bill is socially unconscionable and environmentally disastrous. 

With massive cuts to Medicaid, relied upon by more than 230,000 Alaskan adults and children, reductions to SNAP benefits, cuts to social services, and provisions against undocumented immigrants, the proposed legislation will have far-reaching and devastating impacts to Alaskans. 

On top of the cruelty to communities, the bill will also be incredibly harmful to the environment, particularly for Alaska’s lands, waters, and wildlife. It includes multiple provisions such as forcing approval of the proposed Ambler Road, opening the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling, and placing millions of acres of public lands up for sale. These places are home to Indigenous and rural communities, subsistence hunting areas, cultural sites, recreation lands, and critical habitat that supports wildlife like the Western Arctic caribou herd, freshwater and anadromous fish, and migratory birds.

Senate Democrats are working to remove many of these provisions from the budget, but we need to speak up too. Senate leadership is pushing for voting to start this weekend, and language in the bill continues to change rapidly, making the next few days absolutely critical for us to tell the Senate that we are adamantly opposed to these proposals. We’re calling on you to stand up for the Brooks Range, the Arctic, and public lands across Alaska. Help us hold Congress accountable and demand your representatives strip these harmful provisions from the reconciliation bill.

As always, the Northern Center opposes any legislation or federal action that goes against the will of the people in seeking to open the Arctic to foreign mining companies or new oil and gas extraction.

 

Breaking down the bad provisions:

 

Ambler:

  • The proposed Ambler Road, while removed from the House version of the reconciliation bill, has been reintroduced into the Senate version. Tribes, the Defend Brooks Range Coalition, and allies have advocated for years to protect this incredible region, achieving the No Action Alternative selected by the Department of the Interior (DOI) in 2024. Despite the project’s permits being revoked last June, President Trump and some members of Congress are trying to reverse this decision and force the road’s construction through unrelated legislation like the budget reconciliation bill. Project proponents want to permit the Ambler Road by requiring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to adopt Alternative A from the original 2020 Environmental Impact Statement. Their language would also require both BLM and the National Park Service to issue all necessary rights-of-way, including through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Reversal of the 2024 decision and reissue of road permits would be pushed through within 90 days of the budget bill going into effect.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

  • Republicans have done this before, getting two mandated oil and gas leases included in the budget reconciliation bill in 2017. At the time, they claimed both the federal government and state of Alaska would collectively earn $1.8 billion over ten years. Instead, no major oil companies bid at either lease sale and state and federal revenue was a fraction of one percent of estimates. The state-funded Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority was ultimately the only leaseholder. Any development of the Refuge’s coastal plain could have significant impacts on Indigenous rights. The Gwich’in Steering Committee has opposed oil and gas drilling in the Refuge for decades. This budget bill would mandate four new lease sales over 10 years, opening up a minimum of 400,000 acres per lease sale.

Western Arctic (National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska):

  • The Biden administration updated management for the Reserve through a robust scientific and public process, highlighting the importance of protecting the region’s five Special Areas from new oil and gas development. Now, this budget bill would disregard that process and mandate five lease sales over 10 years, with four million acres being opened up to oil extraction each time. More than 250,000 people commented in support of Reserve protections. Mandated leases would cause significant harm to largely intact ecosystems that support millions of migratory birds, the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk Lake caribou herds, spawning fish, and other marine life. Widespread oil development would negatively impact Arctic Indigenous communities’ rights and subsistence access.

Public Lands:

  • In addition to the other disastrous provisions, Senator Mike Lee has led a years-long effort to sell off public lands that provide critical habitat for wildlife, clean air and water, and opportunities for Alaskans and Americans to hunt, play, and seek refuge. The budget bill proposes to sell off millions of acres of public land under the guise of using the land for development of affordable housing. Starting on page 30 of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources budget text, the bill language proposes the “mandatory disposal” of public land in the western United States. Across Alaska, nearly 83 million acres of BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands are considered eligible for the public lands sale. The provision contains few exceptions—even Wilderness Study Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, roadless areas, and critical habitat areas are all eligible for sale to “any interested party.” This map from The Wilderness Society shows the lands that could be eligible for the land sale.

 

How you can help:

 

Call and/or email your personal Senator(s), Senate leadership, and members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. We know this list is long—please call as many offices as you’re able, every call makes a difference.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Office: (202) 224-4971

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Members:

Senate Leadership:

  • Senator John Thune (Senate Majority Leader): (202)-224-2321
  • Senator Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader, Democratic Leader): (202)-224-6542
  • Senator Richard Durbin (Democratic Whip): (202)-224-2152

Additional Senators to contact:

 

When you reach out to these Senators, remind them that:

 

  • The Ambler Road doesn’t help our bottom line: The road is not relevant to the federal budget, nor will its development make America richer. In 2019, the road’s estimated cost to the state of Alaska was $1.4 billion, with the cost only growing since then. The road isn’t federally financed, and with no mines in the area permitted, there are no national expense or revenue implications. This amendment has already been flagged by the Senate parliamentarian for not passing the Byrd Rule, and as such, it should be removed from the bill. 
  • The Ambler Road is NOT guaranteed by Congress or past law: Congress has NOT already guaranteed the road. ANILCA does not guarantee the road. Section 201(4) refers only to the portion of the road that crosses Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, not the entire corridor. Further, Section 201(4) cannot override ANILCA Section 810, which requires Tribal consultation and prioritizes protections of subsistence use and resources in permitting projects, including Ambler. ANILCA Title XI also requires a joint permitting process for transportation systems through conservation units, meaning all relevant agencies must be engaged and cannot be overridden by Congress.
  • Tribes, Alaskans, and Americans don’t want the Ambler Road: There is widespread opposition to the proposed Ambler Road. Tens of thousands of Alaskans, Tribal members, and Americans across the nation spoke up during the comment period in 2023, and 82% of in-person public testimony expressed opposition to the road. Eighty-nine Alaska Native Tribes and First Nations have signed resolutions opposing the road.
  • Oil leasing in the Arctic does more harm than good: Mandating four leases will raise no revenue, but will harm Indigenous communities and the region’s sensitive ecosystems. Gwich’in communities in both Alaska and Canada have opposed oil and gas development of the Refuge’s coastal plain—called Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (‘the Sacred Place Where Life Begins) by the Gwich’in—for decades because it would irrevocably harm the Porcupine caribou herd.
  • No major oil companies are interested in the region: Republicans promised $1.8 billion from two mandated oil leases in the Refuge for Alaska and the federal government in their 2017 budget bill. Instead, no major oil companies bid at either lease sale and state and federal revenue was a fraction of one percent of estimates. Major banks and insurance companies will not fund or support development.
  • The public supports more, not less, oversight for the Western Arctic: Through recent public and scientific processes and Tribal consultation, including more than 250,000 public comments, Alaskans and the American public have repeatedly called for more safeguards from oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
  • Special Areas are designated as such for a reason, and their protection is mandated by law: The Trump administration is attempting to erase protections for the Western Arctic’s five Special Areas—the Colville River, Utukok River Uplands, Kasegaluk Lagoon, Peard Bay, and Teshekpuk Lake. These areas are designated for protections based on their importance to communities’ cultural and subsistence rights, recreational access, and the diverse fish and wildlife populations these ecosystems support. “Maximum protections” for these vital ecosystems are written into the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976.
  • Inclusion in the budget bill just doesn’t make sense: Mandating five leases in the Western Arctic makes no sense in this budget bill because leases and oil development are already allowed under existing management plans. These provisions are about bad politics, not the budget.
  • Alaska’s public lands belong to all of us: Selling off the land where we hike, hunt, fish, berry pick, bike, and camp (to name just a few activities) to the highest bidder will directly harm Alaskan’s way of life.
  • The sale of these public lands sets a terrible precedent: If passed, this would be the first time in modern land management that Congress has mandated the sale of public lands simply to offset tax cuts and fund the federal government. This creates a precedent where more public land is sold off year after year.
  • This bill isn’t necessary to achieve its stated goal: Land agencies already have ways to identify public lands for uses like housing if it serves community needs. Jamming “land disposals” into a colossal budget bill is bad governance and is clearly geared towards special interests.
  • This isn’t about housing: Ultimately, this proposal comes down to revenue and squeezing all possible money out of public lands to benefit private interests and the ultra-wealthy while reducing everyday Americans’ access to democratically established and protected lands, waters, and wildlife.