Sierra Club Statement on Congressional GOP’s Targeting Protections for Western Landscapes

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Republicans passed a series of resolutions seeking to overturn safeguards for wildlife, water, and recreation on Western landscapes, including areas vital to Tribal communities.

In an unprecedented move, House Republicans utilized the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to vote to overturn three Resource Management Plans developed to oversee areas of public lands in Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota. The resolutions now move onto the Senate.

Today's votes rely on a controversial reading of the Congressional Review Act, an obscure law dating to the Clinton Administration. The law allows Congress to overturn administrative rules developed by executive agencies, and it was successfully invoked only once before the first Trump administration. The law has also never been used to overturn a Resource Management Plan before today's votes. Repealing the plans would have wide-ranging effects, including discarding years of public input and Tribal consultation; and opening the door to more coal mining, oil and gas drilling, and advancing the private Ambler mining road in Alaska.

The revocation of the plans has generated outcry from local communities, who are heavily consulted to develop RMPs, and Tribal, conservation, recreation, and hunting and angling organizations. It also brings confusion to the administration of the country's national public lands, of which 166 million acres are currently managed by Bureau of Land Management RMPs that could be at risk from CRA resolutions in the future.

In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:

"Today's votes set a dangerous precedent for the management of our public lands. RMPs are carefully crafted plans developed with robust input from local communities, Tribes, and local stakeholders - they're examples of how our system should work. It's concerning that House Republicans without expertise or local connections would inject themselves into this process, overrule the people most affected by the plans, and introduce chaos into the management of millions of acres of our most treasured public landscapes."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.