Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
This bill designates approximately 1,559,538 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain in Alaska as wilderness under the Wilderness Act.
The area is identified by a 2015 map (Map ID 03–0172) on file with the Secretary.
The designation is added as an amendment to the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act and applies notwithstanding other provisions of that Act.
Legally straightforward but politically sensitive; strong opposition from development interests and procedural hurdles lower prospects.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill presents a compact and legally anchored substantive change—designation of a specific tract as wilderness—by amending the appropriate statute and citing a concrete map. It relies on existing statutory frameworks for management.
Conservation permanence versus access for energy development and jobs
Conservation permanence versus access for energy development and jobs
Likely very supportive: views the wilderness designation as a permanent protection for critical habitat, climate mitigation, and biodiversity.
Sees this as preventing oil and gas development and safeguarding subsistence resources for Indigenous communities.
Cautiously favorable but pragmatic: recognizes conservation benefits and legal finality, but worries about economic, state-federal, and local impacts.
Wants clarity on economic tradeoffs, compensation, and tribal consultation.
Likely strongly opposed: views the wilderness designation as federal overreach that blocks resource development, jobs, and state prerogatives.
Sees it as a permanent ban on energy development in ANWR.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Legally straightforward but politically sensitive; strong opposition from development interests and procedural hurdles lower prospects.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Conservation permanence versus access for energy development and jobs
Legally straightforward but politically sensitive; strong opposition from development interests and procedural hurdles lower prospects.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill presents a compact and legally anchored substantive change—designation of a specific tract as wilderness—by amending the appropriate statute and citing a concrete map…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.