House and Senate Republicans introduced legislation that would kill a contentious Biden administration public lands rule that was also subject to debate in the House on Tuesday.
The conservation and landscape health rule elevates conservation on par with those other uses in an effort to protect and restore rangelands under growing stress from climate change.
Even though the Bureau of Land Management has insisted the rulemaking was not meant to block grazing, mining or energy development, it has been a target of congressional Republicans since first proposed in 2023.
The “Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act of 2025” from Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Celesete Maloy (R-Utah) would declare that the rule implemented June 10 “shall have no force or effect.”
