U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, spoke on the Senate floor criticizing Congressional Republicans for supporting a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution aimed at overturning a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Resource Management Plan in northeastern Wyoming.
If enacted, this resolution would not only rescind the BLM plan but also, according to Heinrich, undermine years of public participation and cast doubt on the legality of permits and leases issued since 1996. Heinrich stated that previous resolutions disapproving other Resource Management Plans have already been passed by Congress for areas in Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota.
“Just last month, I stood here on this floor to speak about the dangers of using a Congressional Resolution of Disapproval to change Resource Management Plans for public lands around the country. I described how using Congressional Resolutions to circumvent public input would upend decades of public land planning practice,” said Heinrich. “Since then, Congress has passed three separate Congressional Resolutions of Disapproval to amend Resource Management Plans. One in central and northern Alaska, one in eastern Montana, and one in North Dakota. And now, this week, the Senate will vote on a new Resolution of Disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. This time for northeastern Wyoming.”
Heinrich further criticized what he called an effort by Senate Republicans to “rewrite the rules” due to dissatisfaction with outcomes from existing processes: “To put it bluntly, Senate Republicans found a way to rewrite the rules of the game because they didn’t like its outcome,” he said. “When we vote for CRAs as a way to manage our public lands, we vote against including communities in the process. We shut them out from the decision-making process, when we should be inviting them in. And third, today’s vote doesn’t account for the hundreds of millions of dollars per day that are generated for local economies by public land recreation and recreators.”
During his remarks, Heinrich outlined concerns about reversing longstanding management plans through congressional resolutions rather than established processes involving community input. He argued that treating land use plans as federal "rules" could jeopardize legal standing for permits and leases issued since 1996—potentially exposing every grazing permit, energy right-of-way, recreational permit, timber sale or oil and gas lease issued after that year to litigation.
Heinrich explained how traditional BLM planning incorporates multiple rounds of public engagement before final decisions are made: “Resource Management Plans are meant to include communities in the process of deciding how to use our public lands – not exclude them.” He added that amending these plans typically involves significant local involvement through comments and formal protest periods.
The senator also emphasized economic contributions from outdoor recreation tied to federal lands: According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis cited by Heinrich, outdoor recreation contributed $2.2 billion—over four percent—to Wyoming’s economy in 2023 while supporting nearly 16,000 jobs.
Heinrich concluded his remarks urging senators to oppose the CRA resolution: “Public lands belong in public lands; they belong to all of us. And that means that every single person deserves a chance to provide input on how they’re managed.”
