Bill makes it harder for President to limit crude oil exports
H.R. 1850 — CRUDE Act · Filed by Jodey Arrington (R-TX) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill makes it much harder for the President to restrict crude oil exports. Currently, the President can limit exports if the Secretaries of Defense, Energy, and Commerce jointly find that exports have caused oil shortages or price spikes harming U.S. employment. The bill raises the bar by requiring those three officials to jointly find AND the President to declare a national emergency AND formally publish that declaration in the Federal Register before any export restrictions can take effect. It also removes an existing alternative pathway (subparagraph C) that allowed restrictions under other circumstances.
Why we flagged it
The bill functionally deregulates crude oil exports by raising procedural barriers to presidential export controls. It shifts power away from executive agencies tasked with protecting domestic supply and employment toward oil producers seeking unrestricted export access.
What the text implies
- Removes an existing alternative restriction pathway (subparagraph C) without explaining what that pathway was or why it is being eliminated — the full effect depends on reading the 2016 law itself.
- The national-emergency declaration requirement may create a political barrier to export controls even when economic conditions warrant them, since declaring a national emergency is a high-profile act that invites scrutiny.
- By requiring joint findings from three Cabinet secretaries plus a presidential declaration, the bill fragments authority and makes it easier for any one agency or the President to block action, even if the others agree exports are harmful.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill restricts the President's ability to protect domestic oil supply and employment by making export controls procedurally harder to invoke. Ordinary citizens may face higher domestic energy prices if exports drain U.S. crude supplies, and workers in oil-dependent regions lose a tool to protect employment. The bill benefits crude oil exporters and producers at the expense of consumers and workers.
Who stands to gain
- crude oil producers
- crude oil exporters
- oil and gas companies with export capacity
Named in the bill
President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Commerce, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Federal Register, crude oil
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Republicans.
- Mar 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $1,920,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 23 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Jodey Arrington, the sponsor, reported $573,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Petroleum Institute — $1,920,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,190 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 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. 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 Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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