Senate misses window to kill plan for Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has been a target for Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee. He has been looking to undo a Biden-era resource management plan, meant to focus on conservation and consultation with tribes.

That effort has failed for now.

Using the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers on Capitol Hill could have killed the 2025 plan for the 1.9-million-acre swath of public land in southern Utah with a simple majority vote from the Senate floor.

But that 60-day window has closed.

Now, lawmakers would need enough votes to overcome the filibuster should they wish to consider clawing back the years-in-the-making plan that many helped shape — including Erik Stanfield, senior anthropologist with the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department.

“Some people think it’s a win — and I suppose in some sense it is, but I don’t feel excited about it,” said Stanfield. “Because I do think there’s more coming. We’ve just thrown away something that could be another weapon.”

A presidential proclamation, like an executive order, could still jeopardize the plan by downsizing the national monument — which is culturally significant to Navajos, Hopis, Zunis, Utes and Paiutes. Together, they formed the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Inter-Tribal Coalition last March.

This group is made up of Indigenous representatives from the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Zuni Tribe.

“Having to respond to this really strengthened the coalition,” added Stanfield. “It bonded the group a little bit better, we organized and that’s going to persist — even if the Congressional Review Act goes away.”

The Navajo Utah Commission inked a resolution opposing the use of the Congressional Review Act, writing the inter-tribal coalition was created to “advocate for and share their knowledge of their ancestral lands in the monument.”

The National Congress of American Indians also weighed in, stating this “misuse” of the Congressional Review Act to overturn a resource management plan would undo years of tribal engagement, adding it could also set “a dangerous precedent.”