Bill protects 2,212 more acres in Arkansas wild land
H.R. 1612 — Flatside Wilderness Additions Act · Filed by J. Hill (R-AR) · Introduced Feb 26, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill adds about 2,212 acres to the Flatside wild area. The land is in the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas. The wild area gets a new name: Flatside-Bethune. The bill lets the Secretary of Agriculture manage fire and pests. The Secretary can also manage bugs and sickness in the wild area.
Who it affects
The bill stops development and logging on public land. People who hike and camp in the wild area benefit. The public gains from nature and wild land.
One thing to notice
The bill renames the wild area but does not say who Bethune is. The bill keeps the Secretary's power to fight fires and pests.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Feb 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 26, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- May 13, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H1967)”
- May 13, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Oct 21, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $200,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 26 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
J. Hill, who sponsored the bill, received $1,508,689 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Southern Environmental Law Center — $200,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Ouachita National Forest — A national forest in Arkansas owned by the government.
- Flatside wild area — A protected area of land where development and logging are not allowed.
- Secretary of Agriculture — The government official who manages forests and farm land.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,205 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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