Rules Committee advances GOP Congressional Review Act resolutions to roll back BLM land-management plans
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Summary
Republican members urged overturning Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans for the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, ANWR coastal plain and Buffalo Field Office via three CRAs; Democrats warned that using the CRA here would erase years of collaborative land-use planning and harm tribes, ecosystems and long-term planning.
The House Rules Committee considered three Congressional Review Act resolutions that would reverse recent Bureau of Land Management land-management decisions in Alaska and Wyoming and reopen millions of acres to energy development.
Chairman Bruce Westerman testified that S.J.Res.80, H.J.Res.130 and H.J.Res.131 would correct ‘‘misguided’’ resource-management plans finalized by the prior administration, restore leasing access in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR–A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) 1002 coastal plain, and overturn a Buffalo Field Office RMP amendment that Westerman said had blocked mining in Wyoming coal country. Westerman cited U.S. Geological Survey estimates for MPRA/NPR–A and argued the measures would support tribal livelihoods and state revenues.
Opponents, represented by Representative (testifying on behalf of ranking member Huffman) Elfreth, said the CRAs would short-circuit complex, multi-year planning processes that include tribal, state and local input and science. Elfreth warned CRAs would ‘‘forever handcuff’’ the BLM and prevent agencies from issuing substantially similar plans in the future, locking land into fossil-fuel uses and creating legal risk.
Committee members asked about acreage figures, public-comment timing and whether the CRA is the right statutory tool to change resource management. Westerman emphasized local job and revenue impacts and tribal letters of support for reopening areas; Elfreth and other Democrats emphasized environmental harm, impacts to subsistence and the risk of freezing policy-making out of the public process.
The committee included the CRA resolutions in its package and advanced the rule that would bring them to the floor under closed procedures; the resolutions themselves remained subject to floor debate and votes.
