Bill speeds up permits for gas lines and mines, weakens environmental checks.
S. 4944 — American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act of 2026 · Filed by Alan Armstrong (R-OK) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill gives FERC power to approve permits faster. It sets strict time limits for environmental review. If agencies miss deadlines, permits are approved on their own. The bill limits states' power to block permits based on water safety. It makes it harder for people to challenge permits in court.
Who it affects
People who live near gas lines, mines, and water sites lose a say. States have less power to protect water. Companies that build gas lines and mines get faster approval.
One thing to notice
If an agency misses a deadline, the permit gets approved by itself. States cannot use water safety rules to stop a permit. People have only 60 days to sue and almost no way to win.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 19 Republicans.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
12 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 12 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $7,720,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 15 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 93% of bills with any report.
- American Petroleum Institute — $2,780,000 in 1 report
- Chevron U.S.A. Inc. — $1,670,000 in 1 report
- Phillips 66 — $1,320,000 in 1 report
- Americans for Prosperity — $660,000 in 1 report
- American Exploration & Production Council — $500,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- FERC — The federal agency that approves permits for gas lines and energy projects.
- environmental review — A study of how a project might harm water, air, land, and wildlife.
- agencies — Government offices that make rules and approve projects.
- permits — Official papers that let a company build a project.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 14, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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 Jun 2026 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.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 25, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
“Bill speeds up permits for gas lines and mines, weakens environmental checks.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4944/simple Report an error