MAINE MORNING STAR • March 11, 2026
GOP leaders and the Trump administration have used the Congressional Review Act to push for coal mining, oil drilling and copper mining, while attempting to reverse protections for a national monument. The rarely used act gives Congress a few months to revoke new federal regulations. Only in the past year has it ever been used to overrule land management plans. Congress is recklessly throwing out detailed plans created after years of research, public meetings and local collaboration. Lawmakers’ intervention could upend the long-standing management system that governs hundreds of millions of acres of public lands — with consequences that could threaten endangered species and coal miners alike. But the fallout could be much more far-reaching. By using their review authority in a way that was never thought to apply, lawmakers are calling into question the validity of over 100 other plans. It could create legal uncertainty for tens of thousands of leases and permits.