Congress moves to reverse Biden's Grand Canyon monument, reopening land to mining
H.R. 5392 — Northern Arizona Protection Act · Filed by Paul Gosar (R-AZ) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill nullifies President Biden's August 2023 designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona and bars any future monument designation in that area unless Congress explicitly approves it. The effect is to reverse the monument's protections and reopen the land to mineral extraction and development.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to nullify a specific presidential monument proclamation and restrict future designations in that area. It is a direct reversal of executive action, not a new regulatory regime or appropriation.
What the text implies
- Reversal may trigger litigation from tribal nations (Navajo Nation co-designated the monument) and conservation groups challenging the constitutionality of Congress retroactively nullifying a lawful presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act.
- Reopening land to mineral entry may accelerate uranium, copper, and other mining operations near the Grand Canyon, with potential groundwater and air-quality impacts on downstream communities and tribal water rights.
- The requirement for express Congressional authorization for any future monument in the area effectively gives Arizona's congressional delegation veto power over executive conservation actions, shifting the balance of power on public-lands management.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill removes environmental and cultural protections that benefited conservation advocates and tribal nations (the monument was co-designated with Navajo Nation input), but it also removes federal land-use restrictions that some Arizona residents and extractive industries opposed. The balance depends on whether one values mineral-extraction access and local economic autonomy over landscape preservation and tribal sovereignty—a genuine trade-off with real costs and benefits on both sides.
Who stands to gain
- mining and extraction companies (uranium, copper, rare-earth minerals)
- energy development interests
- land-development and real-estate sectors
Named in the bill
President Biden, Navajo Nation, Grand Canyon National Monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni, Arizona, U.S. Department of Interior, Antiquities Act
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Republicans.
- Sep 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 16, 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $856,810 in lobbying spend. A filing names 32 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Paul Gosar, the sponsor, reported $87,570 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- College of American Pathologists — $640,433 on 3 filings
- Associated General Contractors of America — $216,377 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 (834 characters) on Sep 23, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 Dec 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 2026-09-23.
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