FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2026
Utah Senator Mike Lee Wants to Speed Up the Destruction of Bears Ears National Monument – 8.20.26
Piling on top of Trump’s proclamation, Lee could soon fast-track an attempt to rip up the national monument’s land-use plan, which reflects a historic collaborative management process with five Tribal Nations
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Keri Gilliland, Senior Communications Manager, The Wilderness Society; (303) 386-2243; kgilliland@tws.org
Perry Wheeler, Earthjustice, pwheeler@earthjustice.org, (202) 792-6211
Chaitna Sinha, Conservation Codirector and Staff Attorney, Grand Canyon Trust; (970) 399-9565 (csinha@grandcanyontrust.org)
Andrew Scibetta, NRDC, (202) 289-2421, ascibetta@nrdc.org
Kris Deutschman, Conservation Lands Foundation, kris@conservationlands.org, (505) 498-0212
Brian Willis, Sierra Club, Brian.Willis@Sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – This week, at the behest of Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), the Government Accountability Office released an opinion that the Bears Ears National Monument land-use plan (finalized in 2025) is subject to the Congressional Review Act. The plan was developed through a collaborative process involving the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bears Ears Commission. This paves the way for Lee and the rest of the Utah delegation to introduce fast-track legislation that could topple Tribal collaborative management and speed up the destruction of the landscape, while also blocking a substantially the same plan from being enacted in the future.
Earlier this year, using the same mechanism, Utah’s federal delegation, led by Senator Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy (R-UT-02), attempted to undo the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan. Tribal Nations, hunters and anglers, recreationists, local businesses, scientists, faith leaders, and members of the public from across Utah and the country spoke out loudly against this unfounded attack on one of the nation’s public lands gems. Lee and Maloy’s fast-track attack failed on June 12, 2026.
Just a month later, on July 13, 2026, President Trump illegally decimated both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by reducing each of them by over 90%. Significantly, until new management plans are finalized, the existing plans for each National Monument remain in place. That means the current plans will still manage activities in the monuments, with at least one major exception: mining. Trump’s proclamations directed that on September 11, 2026, the lands he cut out of both monuments will be opened to new mining claims and potential oil and gas leasing.
With the GAO opinion in hand, Sen. Lee or other members of the Utah federal delegation can now introduce a bill under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to undo the Monument Management Plan. If Congress passes the bill, called a “resolution of disapproval,” by simple majority votes, the plan will be eliminated and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service (USFS) will be barred from issuing another plan that is “substantially the same” in the future.
Beloved by Utahns and Americans, Bears Ears National Monument is a region of extraordinary cultural significance and natural diversity. On December 28, 2016, President Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish Bears Ears National Monument, protecting both a cultural landscape that has been home to Tribal Nations from time immemorial and some of the wildest redrock country in the nation. Equally important, the proclamation elevated the voices of Tribal Nations that have ancestral ties to the region. Nearly 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites were protected by the proclamation, including House on Fire and Moon House.
In 2023, BLM began the process of developing a management plan to govern the Bears Ears National Monument. This was a crucial opportunity to ensure that the monument is managed for its unique and extraordinary values. As part of the collaborative planning process, the Bears Ears Commission played a central role in developing the 2025 Bears Ears Resource Management Plan, an unprecedented collaborative framework that brings Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and western science together to guide stewardship of Bears Ears National Monument. Below are quotes and additional information.
“Bears Ears National Monument is the quintessential southern Utah redrock landscape with towering spires and mesas, deep canyons, and desert streams; it’s a cultural landscape where Tribal Nations have lived from time immemorial. Quite simply, it’s a place like no other,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “And yet Senator Mike Lee – the purveyor of an endless stream of deeply unpopular ideas for public lands – wants to expedite President Trump’s attack on Bears Ears with the undoing of the monument’s management plan, the blueprint that ensures it is protected for current and future generations. We know Americans will stand up and make their voices heard in opposition to Senator Lee’s latest terrible idea.”
“The administration has already stripped protections from 90% of Bears Ears. Now the monument’s land use plan is in the crosshairs,” said Charlie Luke, The Wilderness Society Utah state director. “A new GAO opinion paves the way for Sen. Lee and his allies to tear up the land use plan and accelerate destruction. We stand with the five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission and the local communities who shaped this land use plan. Without it, we risk losing irreplaceable cultural resources and future generations’ freedom to explore and experience these lands.”
“It’s no surprise that Senator Lee is yet again trying to strip protections from our public lands,” said Thomas Delehanty, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “As if President Trump’s illegal decimation of Bears Ears weren’t enough, Senator Lee’s CRA project risks throwing management of the monument into further chaos, benefitting no one. Just as Tribes, hunters and anglers, recreationists, and members of the public united to defend Grand Staircase-Escalante against the Utah delegation’s prior CRA attack, we will vigorously defend Bears Ears against this threat.”
“President Trump has already illegally stripped protections from more than 90 percent of Bears Ears National Monument. Now Senator Mike Lee is trying to pile on by using the Congressional Review Act to erase the collaborative management plan that ensures this extraordinary landscape is stewarded with Tribal leadership and public input,” said Jackie Feinberg, Lands Conservation Campaign Manager at Sierra Club. “Utahns and people across the country already made it clear they reject this cynical playbook when Congress failed to fast-track his push to overturn the Grand Staircase-Escalante management plan. Congress should once again reject this attempt to sidestep the public and Tribal Nations and instead stand behind the collaborative process that produced the Bears Ears management plan.”
“The GAO report paves the way for lawmakers to further gut protections for Bears Ears and erase years of taxpayer-funded work undertaken by federal agencies to develop a land-management plan in collaboration with tribes, local communities, and the public,” said Chaitna Sinha, Conservation Codirector and Staff Attorney for the Grand Canyon Trust. “The tribes were central to the development of the management plan and the establishment of Bears Ears as a national monument, but lawmakers have yet to consult with them about stripping away protections for these lands.”
“The Congressional Review Act is being weaponized against our public lands, and Utah’s congressional delegation is leading the way,” said Bobby McEnaney, Director, Land Conservation, NRDC. “If they succeed, the Bears Ears management plan will be struck down with no ready replacement—just a cloud of uncertainty over what the Bureau of Land Management can do when it comes to protecting this national treasure going forward. That would be a punishment aimed squarely at the five Tribes and communities who spent years building the plan together. Every member of Congress should ask whether that’s a legacy they want to own.”
“Once again Utah politicians are trying to use the Congressional Review Act to block responsible, collaborative land management. The monument management plan in place right now represents a historic, collaborative process between the Tribes in the Bears Ears Commission and other groups that use the lands in the monument, from recreationists to ranchers,” said Kate Groetzinger, Communications Director for the Center for Western Priorities. “Attempting to repeal this plan with the CRA is a dirty trick, which would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service from ever issuing a similar plan for this landscape in the future. If Mike Lee moves forward with this attack, it could have implications far beyond Trump’s recent size reduction.”
“The overwhelming majority of voters in Utah and across western states want Congress to protect the country’s irreplaceable and beloved national monuments,” said David Feinman, Vice President of Government Affairs at the Conservation Lands Foundation. “We urge everyone who values Bears Ears National Monument, and all public lands, to hold their members of Congress accountable to the public’s will and to the Tribal agreements directing the best management of these landscapes.”
Additional information about Bears Ears National Monument
The Bears Ears proposal was led by the five Tribal Nations that would later comprise the “Bears Ears Commission:” the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe. On December 4, 2017, President Trump ignored millions of public comments and in a brazenly illegal act repealed Bears Ears National Monument, replacing it with two much smaller, non-contiguous units totaling less than 230,000 acres (an 83% reduction). His unprecedented action left rare archaeological sites, unique flora and fauna, and stunning wildlands without protection from looting, uranium mining, oil and gas drilling, and off-road vehicle damage.
Thankfully, on October 8, 2021, President Biden signed a proclamation restoring Bears Ears National Monument to its full, original boundaries—plus an additional 12,000 acres added to the Trump-era Indian Creek unit. National monuments are overwhelmingly popular. Seventy-five percent of Utah voters support the President’s ability to protect public lands as national monuments. 71% Utah voters, including a majority of Republicans, want to keep Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument.
Elected representatives of five Native American Tribes – Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe – collaboratively manage Bears Ears National Monument through the Bears Ears Commission. The five Tribal Nations played a central role in developing the Bears Ears management plan through the Bears Ears COmmission and the collaborative management process. Their ancestral and ongoing relationships with Bears Ears, and their responsibilities to care for the landscape, are fundamental to its management. Any changes to the plan should include meaningful government-to-government engagement with the Tribes.
About the Congressional Review Act (CRA)
The CRA is a federal statute enacted in March 1996 that requires federal agencies to submit “rules” to Congress for a mandatory review period “before they may take effect.” If Congress votes to overturn, or “disapprove,” the rule, it “may not be reissued in substantially the same form. . . .” The BLM has long maintained that its land management plans are not “rules” subject to the CRA. Other federal land management agencies, including the USFS, and National Park Service, have similarly not submitted their land management plans to Congress under the CRA.
However, emboldened by a series of non-binding Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinions, Republican members of Congress have embraced the novel theory that federal land management plans are in fact “rules” subject to the CRA. The 119th Congress has passed seven CRA resolutions overturning previously finalized land management plans or other types of public lands management decisions. The GAO issued a decision regarding the Bears Ears Monument Management Plan on August 17, 2026.
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
The Wilderness Society is a national conservation organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild places since 1935. Through science, advocacy and partnerships with communities and policymakers, we champion the protection of wilderness, national parks, forests, and other public lands that provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and the freedom to connect with nature. For more information, visit www.wilderness.org.
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.
The Grand Canyon Trust is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to safeguarding the wonders of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau, while supporting the rights of its Native peoples. Learn more at grandcanyontrust.org
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).
Conservation Lands Foundation represents a national, nonpartisan network of community advocates who are solely focused on the public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management including National Conservation Lands.
