New budget language’s drilling and mining giveaways amount to major public lands attack

WASHINGTON D.C. (May 1, 2025) - New budget reconciliation language released tonight and set for debate by the House Natural Resources Committee next week includes an unprecedented attack on our nation's most iconic and beloved public lands.

Specifically, the text includes measures to give drilling and mining interests greater license to exploit our natural resources, including by forcing lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinstating mining leases next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Lydia Weiss, senior director of government relations at The Wilderness Society, made the following statement about the contents of the bills:

"The House Resources Committee budget bill released today is a staggering attack on our most iconic, beloved public lands across America. It includes language to recklessly drill and mine in places like the Boundary Waters watershed and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and may open the door for logging in protected roadless forests. It mandates oil and gas leases every three months all over the nation; forces roads through our wildest places where communities have already rejected them; guts the National Environmental Policy Act; and limits judicial review throughout. Even worse, it will fund tax cuts for the rich while doing nothing to help the average American taxpayer. We implore members of the committee to reject this bill."

Contact: max_greenberg@tws.org | newsmedia@tws.org