Congress moves to erase federal conservation rules on public lands
H.R. 1206 — WEST Act of 2025 · Filed by Celeste Maloy (R-UT) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill nullifies a Bureau of Land Management rule on conservation and landscape health that was proposed in 2023. The rule is erased from federal law, returning land-management decisions to their pre-rule state. The bill does not specify what the rule required, but its effect is to block the BLM from enforcing any conservation or landscape-health standards that rule established.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to void a conservation rule, removing environmental constraints on federal land management. The title 'Western Economic Security Today' frames this as economic policy, but the mechanism is straightforward deregulation of landscape-health standards.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify which industries or land uses benefit from the rule's removal, but mining, logging, oil/gas development, and grazing operations typically benefit from reduced conservation constraints on federal lands.
- Citizens lose standing to challenge land-management decisions under the conservation standards the rule established; the rule's removal may also eliminate associated environmental review or public-comment requirements.
- The bill's title ('Western Economic Security') suggests economic benefit to the region, but does not quantify or justify that claim against the conservation value being surrendered.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose access to federal conservation protections on public lands they own. The rule's removal reduces environmental safeguards on federal property, shifting management toward extractive or development-friendly uses without public input on the specific trade-offs.
Who stands to gain
- mining companies
- oil and gas operators
- timber/logging companies
- livestock grazing interests
Named in the bill
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Department of Interior, Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 19583), Conservation and Landscape Health rule
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 8 Republicans.
- Feb 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Sep 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,175,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 33 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Celeste Maloy, the sponsor, reported $716,075 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Specialty Equipment Market Association — $760,000 on 2 filings
- Defenders of Wildlife — $370,000 on 2 filings
- Motorcycle Industry Council — $45,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (322 characters) on Oct 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,388 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Sep 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
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