Congress locks Florida preserve open to oil drilling, blocks future wilderness protection
S. 446 — A bill to prohibit Big Cypress National Preserve from being designated as wilderness or as a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and for other purposes. · Filed by Rick Scott (R-FL) · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill permanently prohibits Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida from being designated as wilderness or added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. It removes the possibility that future Congresses or administrations could grant the preserve wilderness status, which would impose stricter protections and usage restrictions on the land.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative effect is to prevent stricter environmental protections on a federally managed preserve, keeping it available for oil and gas development, off-road vehicle use, and other extractive or intensive recreational activities that wilderness designation would restrict.
What the text implies
- Permanently forecloses future Congresses from designating Big Cypress as wilderness, removing a tool for ecosystem protection and climate resilience in a region vulnerable to sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion.
- Preserves access for oil and gas drilling, off-road vehicle use, and other intensive activities that may degrade water quality in the Everglades and Florida aquifer systems that millions depend on.
- Signals to energy and recreation industries that Congress will preemptively block wilderness protections, reducing regulatory uncertainty for extractive operations on federal lands.
- Removes a potential carbon-sequestration and climate-adaptation asset from the conservation toolkit at a time when Florida faces acute climate risks.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose the option to protect a major ecosystem from intensive resource extraction and recreational damage. The prohibition forecloses future democratic choices about conservation, locking in lower environmental protections and potentially higher costs to public health and ecosystem services (water quality, wildlife habitat, carbon storage).
Who stands to gain
- oil and gas exploration and production companies
- off-road vehicle manufacturers and recreation outfitters
- real estate and development interests in South Florida
Named in the bill
Big Cypress National Preserve, National Wilderness Preservation System, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Senator Rick Scott (Florida)
Where it stands
- Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Dec 9, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held”
- Feb 4, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a…”
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 $139,430 in lobbying spend. A filing names 46 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.
Rick Scott, the sponsor, reported $69,750 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Parks Conservation Association — $139,430 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 (991 characters) on Aug 21, 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.
“Congress locks Florida preserve open to oil drilling, blocks future wilderness protection” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s446 Report an error
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