03.07.17

Grijalva on Vote to Scrap BLM Planning Rule: Republicans Are More Concerned With Obama Legacy Than With Governing

Washington, D.C. – Today the Senate repealed the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Planning 2.0 Rule using the Congressional Review Act, a previously arcane law Republicans have used since the beginning of this Congress to eliminate a host of federal regulations without regard for the economic or environmental consequences. Planning 2.0, promulgated under the Obama administration, was an update to Reagan-era BLM rules that guide public input and decision-making on managing the approximately 250 million acres of public land the agency oversees.

Repealing the rule returns BLM to its 1980s-vintage planning procedures, ignoring the lessons learned from a transparent upgrade process that included thousands of public comments and produced Planning 2.0 after significant stakeholder input. Planning 2.0 sought to put public participation and the best available science at the center of public land management – an outcome Republicans decried as somehow indicative of governmental overreach.

“Today’s vote is the latest in a sad parade,” said Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.). “Republicans are more concerned with scrapping anything associated with President Obama than supporting good policy and the modernization of American government. I can’t believe they thought this was what the country demanded they work on this week.”

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