A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to "Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan".

Plain-English Summary

This bill is a formal objection by Congress to a land management rule recently issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a federal agency that oversees public lands. Specifically, it targets the BLM's management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a large protected area located in southern Utah. The BLM's plan — called a "Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan" — sets the rules for how that monument's land can be used, including decisions about conservation, grazing, recreation, and resource extraction. This congressional resolution, if passed, would cancel that plan entirely under a law called the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to overturn federal agency rules.

If this resolution were to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the President, the BLM's management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante would be thrown out and could not be replaced with a similar rule without new congressional approval. This would affect a wide range of people, including ranchers and farmers who graze livestock on the land, energy and mining companies interested in resource extraction, outdoor recreation businesses and tourists, environmental and conservation groups, and Native American tribes with cultural ties to the area. Each of these groups has different — and often competing — interests in how the monument's roughly 1.9 million acres are managed.

The bill has been introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for review. It has not yet been voted on.