SPEED Act

Enumerated powers · passes

Congress has authority under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 (Commerce Clause) and Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 (Property Clause) to regulate the environmental impacts of federal actions and to define the procedures for such regulation. NEPA is a federal statute governing federal agency actions, and Congress may amend it to limit its scope. The bill does not exceed these enumerated powers.

Bill of Rights · passes

The bill does not infringe any of the first ten amendments. It does not restrict speech, religion, assembly, press, petition (the right to petition the government is preserved through other avenues), or the right to keep and bear arms. It does not authorize unreasonable searches or seizures, nor does it affect criminal procedure rights. Limiting judicial review of NEPA claims does not violate the First Amendment right to petition because NEPA is a statutory right, not a constitutional one, and Congress may define the scope of review for its own statutes.

Individual liberty · passes · severity: minor

The bill does not restrict what an individual may do with their own person, property, speech, labor, or belief. It reduces the regulatory burden on federal projects, which may indirectly increase individual freedom by allowing faster development. While it limits public comment and judicial review opportunities under NEPA, those are statutory participation rights, not constitutional liberties. The government has a compelling interest in efficient project delivery, and the burden remains on the government to justify any restriction on individual sovereignty—here, no such restriction exists.

Decentralization · passes

The bill passes all four questions of the decentralization test. (1) An individual or family cannot handle environmental review of major federal actions; that is inherently a government function. (2) Local communities could handle such reviews, but the bill does not prevent that—it allows substitution of state or tribal reviews. (3) States can handle environmental reviews, and the bill explicitly permits reliance on state environmental review statutes that meet NEPA requirements, thereby decentralizing authority. (4) The bill does not consolidate decision-making upward; it reduces the scope of federal NEPA review and allows lower levels of government to conduct equivalent reviews. Thus, it does not violate the Tenth Amendment.

Due process and takings · passes

The bill does not bypass due process or take property without just compensation. It preserves some judicial review of NEPA decisions, so affected parties still have a forum to challenge arbitrary agency action. The redefinition of 'major federal action' does not deprive anyone of property; it merely changes when an environmental document is required. The Takings Clause (Fifth Amendment) is not implicated because the bill does not authorize the taking of private property. Procedural due process is satisfied because the bill provides fair notice of the new standards and maintains a mechanism for review.