Boundary Waters mining threat re-surfaces in unprecedented CRA attack
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota
Joanna Gilkeson, USFS, Flickr
Rep. Pete Stauber introduces resolution to roll back mineral withdrawal
Washington D.C. (Jan. 13, 2026) -- Rep. Pete Stauber introduced a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to force mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, enabled by the administration’s outrageous and unprecedented treatment of a Biden-era mining ban.
In response to the news, Jordan Schreiber, director of government relations at The Wilderness Society, made the following statement:
“Mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters would pollute one of the crown jewels of America’s public lands and pose a toxic threat to the Wilderness and the approximately 250,000 people who visit it each year. Congress should reject this legislative scheme, which relies on unprecedented treatment of a public land order, and defend this critical landscape for present and future generations.”
In 2023, then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued a public land order that protects over 225,000 acres in the Superior National Forest from mining for the next 20 years. Early last week, the administration took the unprecedented action of submitting the previous administration’s decision to Congress, purporting to trigger a 60-session-day period for congressional review and disapproval under the Congressional Review Act.
Mineral withdrawals have never been considered “rules” under the CRA; they are subject to separate detailed congressional notification procedures in the Federal Land Policy & Management Act. The Interior Department fully complied with those procedures three years ago. Stauber’s CRA resolution of disapproval takes advantage of last week’s unprecedented maneuver, seeking to pave the way for Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta to advance sulfide-ore copper mining in the area.
The Boundary Waters CRA resolution follows a string of CRA resolutions passed in the last few months that overturned management plans in America’s Arctic and elsewhere. Those resolutions treated agency land-use plans as “rules” in unorthodox and unprecedented fashion, and contrary to long-standing agency and congressional practices.
Contact: newsmedia@tws.org / mgreenberg@tws.org
