One Big Beautiful Betrayal

A 1,116-page assault on public lands, environmental protections, and democratic process—fast-tracked while the country slept.

While you were sleeping, they were scheming.

At 10 p.m. on Sunday, the House Budget Committee rammed through a 1,116-page wrecking ball of a bill—Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill”—crafted to roll back decades of environmental protections, reward fossil fuel and mining interests, and accelerate the privatization of public resources under the guise of fiscal reform.

This is not a budget. It’s a legislative weapon. A giveaway to the industries bleeding the American West dry—oil and gas, hardrock mining, industrial logging, and the livestock lobby—all jammed into one massive omnibus package, fast-tracked to the House floor with as little public scrutiny as possible.

The bill extends Trump’s tax cuts, slashes federal social safety nets like Medicaid and food assistance, and begins phasing out what remains of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives. It also includes the proposed sell-off of over half a million acres of federal public lands, a move that would permanently transfer our shared natural heritage into private hands.

Speaker Mike Johnson called it “a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” And he’s right—this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bulldoze what’s left of our environmental protections and legal safeguards for clean air, clean water, and biodiversity. It’s a blueprint for ecological collapse.

The bill moved forward Sunday night in a narrow 17–16 vote in the House Budget Committee, after four Republican hardliners—Reps. Chip Roy (TX), Ralph Norman (SC), Andrew Clyde (GA), and Josh Brecheen (OK)—who had previously voted against it on Friday, switched their positions to “present.” That maneuver allowed the legislation to advance without their full endorsement.

Among its most destructive provisions are those that would fast-track oil and gas development on public lands, slash environmental review requirements, and gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under this plan, the Interior Department could approve massive extraction projects with just 28 days of review—less time than it takes to get a passport. The entire concept of informed public input and science-based decision-making would be reduced to a rubber stamp.

The bill also prioritizes massive increases in Pentagon funding while hollowing out the agencies tasked with protecting wildlife, watersheds, and public lands. Programs designed to reduce emissions, conserve habitat, or help communities adapt to climate change are on the chopping block—along with food assistance and healthcare for the most vulnerable. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that over 14 million people could lose Medicaid coverage if this bill passes.

This isn’t budgeting—it’s a scorched-earth strategy.It treats public lands not as living ecosystems or shared heritage, but as financial assets to be drilled, grazed, and mined into oblivion,all in service to a long-dead fantasy of “American energy dominance.”

What’s next?

The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee, which is scheduled to meet at 1:00 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday to advance the legislation under cover of literal darkness. The full House vote could follow within days. With only a three-vote margin of error for Republicans in the full House, and opposition brewing from both hardliners and moderates, the path forward isn’t guaranteed. And the Senate may still force changes. But make no mistake: the threat is real, and the stakes are enormous.

We urge every defender of wildlands, watersheds, and wildlife to rise up now—before this “beautiful” bill becomes law, and the lands we love are gone for good.

Click here to take action. Raise hell. Defend what’s wild.