On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted to approve H.J. Res. 44, a joint resolution to repeal the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Planning 2.0 Rule which was finalized in late 2016. The Senate approval was the final step for the resolution before it moves to President Trump’s desk for his expected signature. BLM administers 264 million acres of public lands, primarily in 12 western states, with 15.2 million acres in California.
The Planning 2.0 Rule was initiated last year as an update to the process BLM uses to amend and revise its local resource management plans. While the relationships between BLM and local governments historically have been cooperative, the rule weakened much of the agency’s requirements to collaborate and coordinate with counties on land management decisions and complicated many of the public participation components of the planning process. The rulemaking process for adopting Planning 2.0 itself also lacked meaningful outreach to local governments, and many felt the process was rushed in order to ensure adoption before a new Administration took office.
RCRC joined with a broad coalition of local government stakeholders, led by the National Association of Counties, early in 2017 to urge Congress to review Planning 2.0 because of its potential impacts to counties with substantial BLM land holdings. The joint letter can be accessed here.
Full text of H.J. Res. 44, along with its history of Congressional actions, can be accessed here.