Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Land Management Relating to ``Buffalo Field Office Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment''

Floor Speech

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my legislation, H.J. Res. 130, which utilizes the congressional disapproval procedure under the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, to restore coal leasing in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

Many on the East Coast of America might be surprised to learn that the Federal Government owns massive amounts of the western States.

In Wyoming, the Federal Government owns about half of our surface estate and 60 percent of the subsurface estate, or our minerals. In northeast Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office owns and manages over 780,000 acres of land and 4.7 million acres of our mineral estate.

Notably, this land encompasses Wyoming's share of the Powder River Basin, North America's largest coal deposit responsible for the production of 40 percent of our Nation's coal.

Wyoming is the largest coal producer in the Nation. We, in other words, are responsible for ensuring that you can turn on your lights and heat your home. The BLM manages its public lands pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which is implemented pursuant to what we refer to as resource management plans, or RMPs.

These RMPs are designed to maximize resource values for the public. The BLM is required to comply with a multiple use mandate, ensuring that these combination of uses meet current and future needs of the American people.

In its waning days, the Biden administration issued an RMP amendment for the Buffalo Field Office which pursued the no new leasing alternative, pulling 481,000 acres of America's largest coal reserves and resources offline, making 48 billion short tons of coal unavailable and ending leasing in the Powder River Basin.

Such a decision cannot be considered a legitimate or legal RMP pursuant to FLPMA, and neither does it align with Congress' multiple use mandate.

The Biden RMP is instead very clearly a mineral withdrawal enacted by climate activists in direct violation of the law.

The Biden administration's decision to terminate mining in Wyoming's PRB is not only irresponsible and harmful but downright illegal, a mechanism used by the governing elite to inflict harm on every single citizen of this great country to further climate change lunacy.

If this RMPA is allowed to continue, it would risk 4,122 jobs in rural Wyoming, $1.9 billion in labor output through 2048, and millions of dollars in State revenue used to fund public K-12 education.

This seemingly localized decision has national repercussions, as well. In 2024, Wyoming produced 191 million tons of coal, 171 million tons of which were shipped to 26 different States for producing electricity.

At these rates, Wyoming produces about 40 percent of the Nation's coal and about 80 percent of all Federal coal production.

With coal generating as much as 23 percent of America's electricity at any given time, Wyoming coal supplies as much as 9.2 percent of the electricity produced in this country.

Watching the arguments in the Committee on Rules last night and on the floor today, it is clear that ``affordability'' is the word of the day for my colleagues across the aisle. If utility bills for Americans are something they genuinely care about, then I encourage them to vote for H.J. Res. 130 and to not turn off the Powder River Basin coal, which accounts for so much of American energy and could generate even more if Washington, D.C., had not waged a war on coal for the last three decades.

In short, it is policies such as no new coal leasing contained in this Buffalo RMPA that reduce affordability, which my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be supporting if they continue to oppose H.J. Res. 130.

This vote today is a vote to shore up the grid, which will have positive impacts on the utility bills of Americans. When combined with what this majority did for energy development in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, we are shoring up centuries of energy production.

We cannot survive in this country without Wyoming coal, the majority of which is produced in the Powder River Basin. Demand for Wyoming coal is only increasing, both here and abroad. If you turn out the lights on one of Wyoming's most important industries, you will also be turning out the lights on America.

The Biden administration knew this and pursued this harmful policy anyway, and they did so in violation of the law.

On September 18, 2025, the Government Accountability Office determined that the Buffalo RMP was a rule subject to the CRA on the grounds that it is an agency statement, is of future effect, and it implements, interprets, or prescribes law and policy.

This decision is in line with previous GAO decisions on similar land management plans and RMPs, several of which this body has passed in the 119th Congress.

A vote today for H.J. Res. 130 has many positive implications.

First, it would overturn this harmful plan and revert to the 2015 RMP, thereby protecting access to 481,000 acres for coal leasing.

Second, it would provide certainty to countless Wyomingites who rely on our good, clean coal for jobs and for revenue that funds the schools that our children attend.

Third, it is a vote for the millions of Americans who continue to rely on Wyoming coal--and who always will.

Fourth, it is a win for Congress, reminding the agencies that we are the primary policymaking branch of government and that we will hold the agencies responsible for bad, unlawful regulations.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of H.J. Res. 130.

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