Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Land Management Relating to ``Miles City Field Office Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment''

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, in the final days of President Biden's administration, he quickly and quietly issued a rule that had massive impacts on Montana's economy. This happened after the election. Biden's BLM issued an amendment to the Miles City Resource Management Plan that prohibited all new coal development in Eastern Montana. It shuts it down. This means that the BLM prohibited all new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. By the way, that is the home of the largest coal reserves in the United States.

They did this despite strong opposition from local counties in Montana and local elected officials--in fact, the entire Montana congressional delegation and the Governor of Montana himself, Greg Gianforte. In fact, Governor Gianforte specifically requested that the BLM Director withdraw that proposed amendment during the BLM's official ``Governor's consistency review,'' and Biden's BLM ignored him. When the Governor submitted an official appeal to Biden's BLM Director, our Governor was rebuffed.

This lack of respect for Montana's local and statewide elected officials cannot be ignored and will not be ignored, and it is going to get changed and reversed today with the passage of this CRA.

Let's be clear as to what this resource management plan amendment is and what we are doing today with this Congressional Review Act.

The RMPA is an attack on Montana jobs. It is an attack on Montana communities. It is an attack on Montana's energy production. It is an attack on Montana's economy. What today's resolution does is it rolls back officially Biden's war on Montana coal, and it does not affect the underlying resource management plan.

What we are doing today is we are disapproving Biden's ill-conceived amendment and nothing else. This CRA does not prohibit the BLM from issuing a new amendment. This CRA simply prohibits a new administration from issuing a substantially similar coal amendment. In this case, that means they can't permanently prohibit any new coal development.

Today, you may hear from the other side of the aisle that the sky is falling. That is absolutely not true. What we are doing today is righting a wrong--something the Biden administration slipped in after the election.

We are grateful that we were paying attention, and we are going to right this wrong--a midnight Biden rule that was issued without the support from the State of Montana. Talk about Federal bureaucratic overreach.

Taking this action this day, today, will lead to more Montana jobs, more Montana energy, and, by the way, more Montana tax revenue to support K-through-12 education and stronger communities in eastern Montana.

I urge my colleagues to, again, like we did last night with the procedural vote, support, with this final vote, Montana jobs, Montana communities, and to vote yes on its passage. Vote on H.J. Res. 104
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