Public lands chaos looms as House passes CRA resolutions
BLM land in Utah
Mason Cummings
Unprecedented treatment of RMPs might destabilize land management across West
WASHINGTON D.C. (Sept. 3, 2025) — The House voted to topple Resource Management Plans in Alaska (Central Yukon), Montana (Miles City) and North Dakota using the notorious Congressional Review Act, a move experts say could upend the management of public lands in the U.S.
Justin Meuse, government relations director at The Wilderness Society, made the following statement about the news:
“House members just effectively joined the administration’s efforts to dismantle and undermine federal agencies like the BLM by voting to undo decades’ worth of local planning. Overturning land management plans in this unprecedented way could throw our public lands into chaos, threatening to expose thousands of permits, leases and rights of way to legal challenge.
These votes are especially alarming just months after a massive bipartisan show of support for public lands forced Sen. Mike Lee to drop his land sell-off mandate from the budget reconciliation package. Americans overwhelmingly love public lands and the freedom to enjoy them. We want thoughtful stewardship guided by community voices. Congress should let BLM do its job: managing our nation’s public lands with the public’s input, while balancing recreation, conservation and energy production. We urge the Senate to reject these resolutions and preserve the guidance that makes it possible to keep our natural resources accessible and well cared for, now and for future generations.”
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Treating RMPs as “rules” reviewable under the CRA is highly unorthodox and could create deep uncertainty around land-use plans across the West. Early in 2025, the Interior Department’s Office of the Solicitor affirmed [PDF] that “RMPs have never been considered rules by the Department of the Interior [...] or any reviewing court.” Yesterday, a group of distinguished law professors signed a letter asking Congress to refrain from using the CRA to repeal RMPs (PDF), saying such an action could set “a precedent that could have far-reaching unintended consequences for all activities on public lands.”
Contact: newsmedia@tws.org / max_greenberg@tws.org
