The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Buffalo and Rock Springs Resource Management Plans (RMP) are a direct attack on Wyoming’s heritage, economy, and the livelihoods of the hardworking men and women who call this great state home.
Although the Biden-Harris administration’s wrongheaded policies will be felt most acutely by Wyoming, the entire country ultimately suffers when our leaders pursue an agenda that is intended to further energy poverty and limit our food choices.
Fueled by the climate change lobby and eco-extremist groups, both of these RMPs exemplify the current administration’s blatant disregard for the people who have managed these lands and resources responsibly for generations.
In sum, outsiders in Washington, DC, have chosen to prioritize radical environmentalism over the proven stewardship of the very Wyoming people who better understand our water, wildlife, fisheries, vegetation, real property, oil and gas, minerals, economy, and communities than a bureaucrat behind a desk ever could.
I am seeking to block both the Buffalo and Rock Springs RMPs and have introduced stand-alone legislation and amendments to House appropriations bills that were successfully included in an appropriations package.
Unfortunately, Senate Democrats failed to act on these House-passed measures, leaving not only the state of Wyoming and our communities vulnerable to what is clearly blatant federal bureaucratic overreach, but a continuation of the failed energy policies that have wreaked havoc on this country for the last four years.
Rest assured, I will reintroduce this legislation in the new 119th Congress, and I am optimistic that, with a Republican majority in both chambers and President Trump in the White House, we can stop the BLM from implementing these RMPs.
As it currently stands, the Buffalo and Rock Spring RMPs would convert at least 11 million acres of federal land from multiple use to non-use and restricted access.
This approach is not land management; it is a de-facto land lockout. Grazing, mining, recreation, energy development, and the construction of rights-of-way for infrastructure—all essential to Wyoming’s economy and way of life—would be severely restricted.
The BLM’s proposed RMPs thus exemplify some of the most significant dangers of Washington, DC’s top-down approach to land management. Wyoming’s federal lands have historically been managed under multiple use principles—a balance of energy production, grazing, recreation, and conservation.
This approach—mandated by Congress—reflects the reality that these uses are not mutually exclusive but complementary, especially when guided and informed by local knowledge and experience.
These RMPs, however, throw those principles out the window, favoring militant environmentalist ideals that are neither practical nor beneficial and, more importantly, violate numerous federal statutes, including the Federal Land Policy Management Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act (just to name a few).
It is impossible to overestimate the devastation that BLM bureaucrats are attempting to impose on Wyoming communities and the country as a whole.
Both the Buffalo and Rock Springs RMPs will decimate our legacy industries—all because the Biden-Harris administration has chosen to buy into the hysterics of the climate change lobby rather than follow scientific analysis and facts and comply with the law. Congress must step up to stop this targeted aggression against Wyoming and the West.
Make no mistake: the BLM’s latest RMPs are not about conservation—they are about control and the consolidation of power by environmental zealots.
The Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering allegiance to the climate change lobby is driving this relentless campaign by green special interest groups to strip rural communities of their rights, their livelihoods, and their futures.
These efforts are a blatant attempt to impose their anti-West vision on our state under the false pretense of conservation.
Wyoming’s voice must be heard. That’s why I will continue to champion legislation to protect our lands, our industries, and our way of life.
I will continue to fight against any agenda that seeks to make energy poverty and food scarcity the norm.
This is a battle in a much larger war against federal overreach and the bureaucratic nightmare that has expanded exponentially as regulatory agencies have sought to claim more and more power regardless of the scope of their congressional authorization and purpose.
In 2025, with renewed Republican leadership, the 119th Congress can correct this overreach, reclaim its legislative authority as granted by Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, and reiterate the fact that our federal lands should be managed for our prosperity and freedom, not to be used as a tool of bureaucratic control.
I will continue to relentlessly fight alongside my colleagues to safeguard your rights, your livelihoods, and the future of our communities.
