WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) introduced legislation to protect multiple use policy on federal lands. The legislation would block the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) finalized Public Lands Rule.

“Almost half the land in Wyoming is owned by the federal government. The law has long recognized the value of managing much of that land for multiple use – including mineral development, grazing, recreation and timber management,” said Senator Barrasso. “Wyoming prides itself on being responsible environmental stewards of the land. The Biden administration put in rules to upend public land access and productivity. This bill will direct the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to block the former administration’s disastrous Public Lands Rule. We are ready to work with the Trump administration to end the radical rules that threaten our Wyoming way of life.”

Co-sponsors of this legislation include U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), John Curtis (R-Utah), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

Background:

• The final BLM rule runs counter to the agency’s multiple use mandate under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).
• According to FLPMA, the BLM is required to balance the multiple uses of public lands including recreation, energy, mining, timber, and grazing.
• The “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule rearranges agency priorities by putting a new, single use on equal footing with long established uses that Congress explicitly directed.
• The rule also places an outsized focus on the use of restrictive Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designations that have compromised land and water health across the West.

Full text of the legislation can be found here.

###