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H.R. 6409119th CongressEnvironmental Protection
FENCES Act
Sponsored by Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) · 2 active : 2 Republicans
Latest action: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Where it standsPassed House, now in the Senate7 senators score as swing votes
Passed House
- House: passedApr 16, 2026
- Senate: next
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govForeign Emissions and Nonattainment Clarification for Economic Stability Act or the FENCES Act
This bill modifies standards under the Clean Air Act to exempt states from penalties for emissions outside of the state’s control.
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The bill provides that certain nonattainment areas (i.e., those classified as severe or extreme for ozone or as serious for particulate matter) are not subject to sanctions for implementation plan deficiencies or for fees for failing to attain national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) if the state demonstrates it would have avoided deficiencies or attained its standards but for emissions outside of its control (e.g., emissions from an exceptional event like a wildfire). A state must renew its demonstration at least once every five years for exemption from the sanctions or fees to continue to apply.
The bill specifies that an area within a state may not be designated as a nonattainment area regarding any new or revised NAAQS for a pollutant if the state demonstrates it would be in attainment but for emissions emanating from outside of the country, regardless of whether the emissions resulted from human activity.
For purposes of approving a state implementation plan or meeting certain NAAQS, current law provides that a state may demonstrate to the Environmental Protection Agency that but for emissions emanating from outside of the country, it would have attained applicable NAAQS by the attainment date for certain pollutants. The bill specifies that such emissions emanating from outside the country may include emissions that result from human activity.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- House Committee on Energy and Commerce · HouseReported by · Markup by · Referred to
- Environment · HouseReported by · Markup by · Referred to
- Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · SenateReferred to
Subjects
- Air quality
- Civil actions and liability
- Climate change and greenhouse gases
- Pollution liability
- State and local government operations
- User charges and fees
Model
Directional: count only breaks toward the other partyWhy do scores change?v3default (selected)v2 model swing-v2
How the Senate breaks down
- 7Swing 70–100
- 77Middle 30–70
- 16Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
2 activeShow all 2 cosponsors
- Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-2)
- Jeff Crank (R-CO-5)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
