The Hill: Congress must reclaim authority over public lands
For decades, the executive branch has unilaterally withdrawn vast tracts of federal land from productive use through a mechanism known as a public land order. For instance, the Biden administration in 2023 signed Public Land Order 7917, which withdrew more than 225,000 acres of land in northern Minnesota from mineral development.
According to experts, this area contains “world-class deposits” and one of the largest undeveloped copper-nickel and platinum-group metal resources in the world — potentially including vast quantities of copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum-group metals.
By locking up these lands, the Biden administration effectively killed a planned development that could have helped meet growing global demand for minerals used in everything from household appliances to military aircraft. This decision was made despite opposition from members of Congress, mineral developers and local residents who recognized the economic opportunity that responsible development could bring to the region.
The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres of land — about 28 percent of the United States. These lands contain many of the natural resources essential to our modern economy. Traditionally, federal lands are presumed to be open to multiple uses, including responsible resource development.
But through public land orders, an administration can effectively close off these lands to otherwise lawful activities — most often mineral development — without meaningful accountability. With a single signature, the Department of the Interior can — as in the Minnesota case — lock away a mineral-rich area of land five times the size of Washington, D.C. There was no debate, no vote and no accountability.
That decision, which was buried in bureaucratic procedure, wiped out jobs, investment and access to critical minerals the nation desperately needs. It is a vivid example of how executive power over public lands has grown far beyond what the Constitution ever intended.
Congress, however, is not powerless in the face of such executive action. The Congressional Review Act provides lawmakers with a powerful tool to rein in agency overreach by allowing Congress to nullify federal rules. Despite their name, public land orders are rules, given their sweeping impact on the public and the economy.
Historically, the Congressional Review Act has been woefully underutilized, with less than 1 percent of finalized agency rules ever targeted for repeal. That is beginning to change. During the 119th Congress, lawmakers have already used it to rescind 22 rules, reducing regulatory burdens on Americans by more than $130 billion. Congress has eliminated regulatory burdens that were previously thought to be off-limits from the law’s reach, including the repeal of California’s EPA electric vehicle waiver and several Biden-era resource management plans.
Now it is time to apply the CRA to misguided, job-killing public land orders.
This month, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) introduced a CRA resolution to nullify Biden’s public land order in Minnesota. The House has passed that resolution, marking a decisive step toward lifting the Biden-era mining ban in northern Minnesota. In the previous Congress, the House passed a bill to revoke this order, but this resolution offers an even stronger solution. It would not only overturn Biden’s public land order, but it would also permanently bar any future administration from issuing a substantially similar order. And unlike most legislation, Congressional Review Act resolutions are not subject to a Senate filibuster.
Repealing the Biden-era land order would be a major victory for American consumers, domestic manufacturers and industries that rely on critical minerals. It would also reaffirm the Constitution’s separation of powers by restoring Congress’s role in major land-use decisions.
More broadly, passage of this CRA resolution should establish a critical precedent: that public land orders are rules subject to the CRA. That precedent would empower Congress to reexamine other harmful PLOs, including one that withdrew over 20,000 acres in South Dakota, known to have deposits of gold and other minerals.
Major policy decisions belong in Congress, not behind closed doors in the executive branch. The Congressional Review Act gives lawmakers a brief 60-day window to act. Now that the House has acted, the Senate must seize this opportunity and quickly approve the resolution and send it to the president’s desk. Passing the resolution offers a clear opportunity to restore economic opportunity, domestic production and the constitutional balance of power.
This op-ed was originally published in The Hill on January 24, 2026.
