More than 60 Environmental Organizations, Tribal Nations Urge Congress to Remove Anti-Environment Provisions in NDAA

Contact: Siham Zniber, szniber@earthjustice.org

Washington, D.C. – A coalition of more than 60 groups, led by Earthjustice Action, sent a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees calling on them to remove several anti-environment provisions included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). If included in a final bill, these provisions would subsidize and benefit polluting industries and corporations while undermining states’ rights, public health, and Tribal authority.  

“Once again, the NDAA is being used as a vehicle to advance measures that are unrelated to national security, attack core environmental laws, and are political in nature,” the letter states. “We ask that you work to remove these threats from any final package and oppose any other provisions that would undermine fundamental environmental protections.” 

The coalition identifies eight anti-environment riders across both the House and Senate versions of the NDAA: 

House NDAA 

• Section 1414: would take steps towards further subsidizing the mining industry, an already overly subsidized industry that is still considered the most toxic industry in the U.S. by the EPA.   

• Section 1735: would reauthorize the Defense Production Act (DPA) for the next five years without any guardrails, despite the current administration’s significant and ongoing abuses of its authorities. Since returning to office, President Trump has invoked the DPA to attempt to preempt state law to restart an oil pipeline in California, take equity stakes in mining companies, and hand out half a billion dollars to prop up coal-fired power plants and infrastructure.  

• Section 1898: would require the Department of Defense (DOD) to prioritize sourcing uranium and critical minerals from domestic mines without considering the impacts to local communities and their drinking water.  

• Section 2819: would exempt certain projects from the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which requires federal agencies to consult with Tribal Nations and local communities on the impacts of proposed projects on historic properties.  

• Section 2835: would undermine longstanding state property rights, weaken judicial oversight, and establish a dangerous precedent for using federal eminent domain powers to override state environmental, public trust, and land-management authorities for the benefit of a private oil company (Sable Offshore).   

Senate NDAA (S. 4784) 

• Sec. 1051: would allow the Trump administration to continue its controversial use of equity stakes without meaningful protections for the environment or communities.  

• Section 1054(b): would remove current safeguards and allow the Trump administration to take full advantage of funding available from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to carry out President Trump’s mining executive orders and other priorities.    

• Section 1091(b): would bypass federal court rulings and pending litigation to give a private company over 713 acres of culturally important land to continue dumping radioactive phosphogypsum waste, harming the health and safety of nearby tribal communities. Section 1091(b): would bypass tribal treaty law, federal court rulings and pending litigation to give a private company over 713 acres of culturally important land to continue dumping radioactive phosphogypsum waste, harming the health and safety of nearby tribal communities.  

 A full copy of the letter and signatories is available here.