Huffman, Heinrich, DeGette, and Lawmakers Call on Interior to Implement and Strengthen Proposed Conservation and Landscape Health Rule

June 12, 2023

Washington, D.C. – Today, United States Representatives Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) led a letter from lawmakers in the Senate and House to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland calling to support the completion of rulemaking and implementation of the proposed “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote: “We strongly support the progress and direction of BLM’s long-overdue draft rule. We believe the final rule should build upon the draft to ensure that the rule achieves its potential to balance various multiple uses of BLM lands for the benefit of current and future generations.”

The lawmakers continued: “Lands managed by the BLM are often overlooked in conversations about addressing the biodiversity and climate crises, but their contributions are crucial. Sustainable and resilient public lands are critical to Western economies and great quality of life. This draft rule provides an important framework to modernize BLM’s conservation regulations and can be strengthened.”

In addition to Heinrich, DeGette, and Huffman, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Additional House signers include U.S. Representatives Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Mike Thompson (CA), David Trone (D-Md.), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).

You can read the full text of the letter sent to the U.S. Department of the Interior today here.