Congress is using a little-known law to undo years of public input and local decision-making on public lands, and it could soon affect protected places in California like Carizzo Plain National Monument.
In an early 2026 attack on access and recreation on public lands AND years of public input, members of Congress in weaponized the obscure Congressional Review Act (CRA) to wipe out local control over mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Congress also recently used the CRA to discard local management plans on public lands in several western states, and now we’re hearing that Congress plans to do the same thing to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.
If that happens, it would be the first time, ever, that Congress uses the CRA to undo a monument management plan.
If Congress can erase a monument management plan in Utah, it can do the same thing here, including the plan for Carrizo Plain National Monument.
Once the CRA is used to overturn a plan, nothing substantially similar can replace it. That means no clear rules for how the land is managed, no certainty for communities, and no predictable access for people who hike, hunt, camp, or work on these lands.
YOU CAN HELP BY TAKING ACTION BELOW
Photo above: Carrizo Plain, Bob Wick
