Florida delegation blocks wilderness protection for Big Cypress preserve
H.R. 1192 — To ensure that Big Cypress National Preserve may not be designated as wilderness or as a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and for other purposes. · Filed by C. Franklin (R-FL) · 18 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill prohibits Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida from ever being designated as wilderness or added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The preserve would remain under its current management status, blocking any future administrative or legislative action to grant it wilderness protection.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a permanent prohibition on a specific conservation designation for a named federal property. It functions to preserve current mixed-use management authority and block future wilderness protections, favoring extractive and motorized-recreation interests over strict conservation.
What the text implies
- Permanently forecloses future Congresses from designating Big Cypress as wilderness, removing a policy option from the legislative toolkit even if public opinion or environmental conditions change.
- Preserves current National Preserve status, which permits oil and gas leasing, airboat use, and other extractive/motorized activities that wilderness designation would prohibit.
- All 14 cosponsors are Florida representatives, suggesting this is a regional/district-level carve-out rather than a national conservation policy statement.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Wilderness designation would strengthen environmental protections and restrict commercial extraction, benefiting conservation-minded citizens and future generations; prohibition preserves current mixed-use access, benefiting motorized recreation users and industries with extraction interests. The trade-off between conservation and access/resource use is genuine and contested.
Who stands to gain
- oil and gas extraction companies operating in Big Cypress
- airboat and motorized recreation outfitters
- hunting and fishing guide services
Named in the bill
Big Cypress National Preserve, National Wilderness Preservation System, U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, State of Florida
Where it stands
18 cosponsors: 16 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Feb 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,193 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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