12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Notable · Needs Congress
Reform the Natural Gas Act to extend LNG export approvals to all allies
Printed page 369 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions
“In addition, Congress should reform the Natural Gas Act to expand required approvals from merely nations with free trade agreements to all of our allies, such as NATO countries.”
What has happened
- Attempted
The House passed H.R. 1949, the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025, 217-188 (Roll no. 304). The bill strikes Natural Gas Act section 3(a) through (c) outright, removing the DOE export-approval requirement for every destination rather than extending free-trade-agreement treatment to allies as the Quote asks; it reaches the Quote's object by a wider route. The Senate read it a second time and placed it on the Legislative Calendar on 8 December 2025; no Senate vote.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Requires-Congress ask on the four-rung ladder: one-chamber passage is attempted.
The Quote asks Congress to expand the class of countries entitled to automatic approval from free-trade-agreement partners to all allies such as NATO members. H.R. 1949 repeals the non-FTA public-interest review entirely, which subsumes that ask. Read the operative text at the engrossed-in-House version cited.
Other bills in the subject that stayed in committee: H.R. 381 (LNG Public Interest Determination Act), S. 883 and H.R. 1281, S. 1901 / H.R. 3592 (Protect LNG Act, ordered reported 10 September 2025 — still not started on the ladder), S. 4520 (LNG Export Security Act).
- Action
- expand
- Object
- Natural Gas Act LNG export approvals
- ID
- 928