Congressional Public Lands Score

The law extends through fiscal year 2037 the Bureau of Land Management's authority to charge a fee on every oil and gas drilling permit application and send that money to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund, which pays to approve drilling permits on public lands faster. The authority was set to end after fiscal year 2026.

The first attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn a national monument management plan, the 2025 plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante and its 1.87 million acres of fossil beds, ancient rock art, and desert wilderness in Utah. The Senate fast-track window closed June 11, 2026 without a vote, so the resolution now needs 60 votes. On July 13, 2026 the president cut the monument itself to 181,541 acres by proclamation, effective September 11.

S.220 would strip the president's authority to designate or expand national monuments under the Antiquities Act and give that power to Congress. Presidents of both parties have used the 1906 law to protect places from the Grand Canyon to Bears Ears. Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT) carries the House companion, H.R.521.

H.R.676 would declare that federal oil, gas and coal leases and mining approvals on federal land are not major federal actions under NEPA, exempting them from environmental review entirely and removing the safeguard that requires companies to assess water contamination, habitat destruction, and community impacts before breaking ground.

H.R.845 orders the Interior Secretary to reissue the 2020 rule that removed gray wolves in the lower 48 states from the endangered species list, outside the Mexican wolf range, and bars any court review of it. Wolves in the Northern Rockies are already delisted, so the practical effect falls on the Great Lakes, the Pacific Coast states and Colorado. Pending in the Senate as S.1306.

H.R.4090 writes provisions of Trump Executive Orders 14154 and 14241 into law, directing Interior, in consultation with the Agriculture Department, to fast-track hardrock mining projects on BLM land and 193 million acres of National Forest land and to inventory federal land for mining potential. The House rejected, 209-212, a motion that would have barred expedited treatment for mines owned by companies from China and other adversary nations.

H.R.1366 codifies a reversal of the Rosemont Copper court decision, allowing mining companies to claim additional mill sites on public land next to their claims for waste rock, tailings and processing without a valid mineral discovery. It opens National Forest and BLM land around every mine to waste disposal by right.

H.R.281 directs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue the 2017 Greater Yellowstone grizzly delisting rule and bars judicial review. USFWS determined in January 2025 that delisting is not warranted, and in July 2026 proposed keeping the bears listed as threatened while handing day-to-day management to the states. This bill overrides the agency's own science.

H.R.587 would remove the lesser prairie-chicken from the endangered and threatened species lists by statute and bar USFWS from relisting it. A federal court vacated the 2022 listing in 2025 and USFWS finalized its removal on February 25, 2026, so the bill now works to lock that outcome in against any future finding that the bird needs protection.

H.R.180 adds procedural hurdles to USFWS listing decisions under the Endangered Species Act, making it harder and slower to protect species on federal public lands.

USDA announced its proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule on August 18 and published it in the Federal Register on August 20, along with a draft environmental impact statement. The rescission would open roughly 44.7 million acres of inventoried roadless areas to road construction and industrial logging in every state except Idaho and Colorado, which keep state-specific rules covering the rest of the 58.5-million-acre inventory. The public comment window is open now and closes October 6, after USDA extended it in a notice published September 11.

On July 13, 2026 the president signed proclamations shrinking Bears Ears National Monument from 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from 1.87 million acres to 181,541 acres, removing nearly three million acres of monument protection. The proclamations also end the co-management agreement with the five tribes of the Bears Ears Commission. Conservation groups went back to federal court in Washington on September 2, 2026. On October 13 Judge Tanya Chutkan reopened the 2017 cases and ordered the government to give 48 hours' notice before any ground-disturbing work.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA finalized a rule rescinding the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act, removing habitat destruction from the conduct the law prohibits. Habitat loss is the leading driver of extinction. A Senate resolution to overturn the rule, S.J.Res.204, was introduced August 3. Senators discharged it from committee by petition on September 15, which lets them force a floor vote.

Budget proposals and hiring freezes have reduced staffing at the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by thousands of positions, affecting wildfire response, trail maintenance, visitor services, and law enforcement across hundreds of millions of acres of public land.

BLM held the first of four lease sales required by the 2025 reconciliation law on June 5, 2026, offering 58 tracts covering 688,829 acres of the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain, the calving ground of the Porcupine caribou herd. Only two Alaska bidders showed up, taking five tracts covering 72,490 acres for $3.7 million. Three more sales are required by 2032.

The Senate confirmed Steve Pearce as Director of the Bureau of Land Management on May 18, 46-43, in an en bloc vote packaging 49 nominees. Pearce, a former U.S. Representative (R-NM), derided Theodore Roosevelt's "big ideas of big forests and big national parks" in a 2012 speech and pledged to "reverse this trend of public ownership of land," and he is one of the most outspoken proponents of transferring federal public land to states and private interests in the country. He now oversees 245 million acres of public land. The confirmation vote is scored as Senate vote 19 below.

The Senate confirmed Kevin Lilly as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks on August 7, 51-47, in an en bloc vote packaging 74 nominees. Lilly, a Texas wealth manager, now oversees the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Parks Conservation Association urged senators to vote no, and senators from both parties questioned his lack of land management experience at his June 24 hearing. The confirmation vote is scored as Senate vote 20 below.

The White House withdrew Scott Socha's nomination to lead the National Park Service on April 27 after he asked to be pulled from consideration. Socha, a Delaware North executive with no land management experience, faced sustained scrutiny because his company had trademarked the names "Ahwahnee," "Yosemite Lodge," and "Yosemite National Park" itself, then sought $51 million from the federal government when it lost the Yosemite concession contract. The Park Service has gone the entire administration without a Senate-confirmed director.