General Congressional Update
Congress wrapped up much of its summer legislative work in July before departing Washington for the August recess. The House adjourned in late July after completing committee consideration of all 12 Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations bills, while the Senate remained in session into early August. Both chambers are now in recess and are scheduled to return in September, when government funding will quickly become a priority ahead of the September 30 end of the fiscal year.
Congress also continued work on the long-delayed Farm Bill. The House passed its version earlier this year, but efforts to advance a separate Senate bill stalled on August 6 when the Senate Agriculture Committee rejected Chairman Boozman's proposal 10–11. The vote largely broke along party lines over disagreements surrounding SNAP policy, while the absence of Republican Senators McConnell and Tuberville left the committee without enough votes to advance the bill. Chairman Boozman may make another attempt when the Senate returns in September.
FWS Drain Tile Setbacks
In July, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a Request for Information seeking input on its policy for drain tile setbacks near federally protected wetland easements. These easements are voluntary agreements with private landowners that protect wetlands while allowing surrounding lands to remain in agricultural production. Drain tiles are underground pipes used to remove excess water from agricultural fields. When installed too close to a protected wetland, however, they can also pull water out of that wetland and reduce its value for waterfowl and other wildlife. To prevent this, the Fish and Wildlife Service establishes minimum distances—known as setbacks—between new drain tile and protected wetlands. These protections are particularly important given that more than half of the nation's historic lower 48 wetland waterfowl habitats have already been since America's founding.
BHA believes any changes should protect both the conservation value of these wetlands and the investments sportsmen and women have made in them. For decades, hunters have helped finance these voluntary easements through the Federal Duck Stamp, with Duck Stamp revenues helping permanently protect millions of acres of wetlands and grasslands in the Prairie Pothole Region. BHA wants to ensure that changes to setback policy do not undermine those long-term conservation investments made by hunters. The public comment period closed on August 7th, but BHA will continue to put political pressure on select senators and agency leaders to ensure that they understand how important science, backed setback standards are.
For more information, please see BHA’s Action Alert here.
Wilderness Policy Reviews
The Bureau of Land Management is currently reviewing three major policies that collectively guide how the agency identifies, considers, and manages some of its most undeveloped public lands.
Three policies are open for public comment, all closing August 14:
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BLM Manual 6330 – Management of BLM Wilderness Study Areas: Governs Wilderness Study Areas — lands managed to preserve their wilderness character unless and until Congress determines their long-term status. The manual implements the statutory “non-impairment” standard, which generally requires the Bureau to manage these areas so their suitability for future wilderness designation is not diminished while Congress considers their long-term status.
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BLM Manual 6340 – Management of Designated Wilderness Areas: Governs lands that Congress has already designated as Wilderness under the Wilderness Act. These areas have the strongest statutory wilderness protections of the three categories, and the manual guides how the Bureau implements those protections on the ground.
Together, these reviews could affect BLM management across the full spectrum of lands possessing wilderness values — from identifying those values during the planning process to managing congressionally designated Wilderness. BHA is reviewing all three policies for potential impacts to fish and wildlife habitat, backcountry hunting and fishing opportunities, public access, and the conservation of intact landscape. We will be submitting a technical comment. Comments on all three policies are due August 14.
To make your voice heard, submit comments through the links above and explain why Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, and Lands with Wilderness Characteristics matter to you—whether they have provided quality hunting or fishing opportunities or are simply important to you as a federal public landowner.
See here for a map of the different wilderness designations that are being considered here.
Grand Staircase Escalante & Bears Ears National Monument Presidential Proclamation
On July 13, President Trump signed proclamations dramatically redrawing the boundaries of Grand Staircase–Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Together, the proclamations removed monument protections from approximately 2.93 million acres, reducing the monuments’ combined footprint from roughly 3.23 million acres to just over 302,000 acres. Grand Staircase–Escalante alone was reduced from approximately 1.87 million acres to 181,541 acres, while Bears Ears was reduced from approximately 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres. The excluded lands remain federally managed public lands, but the removal of monument protections could make some areas available for uses such as mineral development, subject to existing withdrawals, land-use plans, other applicable laws and valid existing rights beginning September 11. See the Whitehouse Fact Sheet here.
BHA is particularly concerned that the decision was presented as necessary to restore hunting, fishing and public access. During the signing ceremony, President Trump said, “You can’t go hunting. You can’t go fishing. You can’t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it.” Deputy Interior Secretary Katharine MacGregor responded, “That’s exactly right, sir.” That assertion is simply false: hunting, fishing, hiking and other forms of public recreation were already allowed within both monuments, subject to applicable state wildlife regulations and federal land-management rules. See the Whitehouse signing transcript here.
Grand Staircase–Escalante has been caught in political shifts over its boundaries in the past, but BHA has consistently emphasized that, in this case, durable boundaries and monument management conserves intact habitat and sustains hunting, fishing and public access for future generations. Reducing these conservation safeguards should not be presented as creating access that already existed.
For more information, see BHA’s press release here.
Roadless Rule
While there were no formal developments in July on USDA’s proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule in July, BHA is standing at the ready. The forthcoming Draft Environmental Impact Statement—which will evaluate rescinding protections across roughly 58 million acres of inventoried roadless areas and opens up our best chance to make our voices heard through public comment period—is expected in late August or early September, with the latest unconfirmed discussions pointing to an August 26th release date.
Hunters, anglers, and public landowners should gear up. Once the draft is released, we expect a limited comment window—and this proposal must be met with a flood of comments explaining why intact roadless areas matter. BHA has been collecting stories from our chapters about the hunting and fishing opportunities these landscapes sustain, from secure elk and mule deer habitat to cold, connected watersheds supporting native trout. The Forest Service already manages approximately 370,000 miles of roads and faces a $10.8 billion deferred-maintenance backlog; our remaining backcountry does not need another costly network of roads. The original rule followed 600 public meetings and 1.6 million comments. Defending it today will require hunters and anglers to speak up just as forcefully.
For more information, please see BHA’s presser here.
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