President Trump Signs North Dakota Delegation Bill to Repeal Disastrous, Biden-Era North Dakota RMP

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BISMARCK, N.D. - During a ceremony at the White House, President Donald Trump signed a historic resolution to unwind the awful Biden-era Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Resource Management Plan (RMP) for North Dakota. The resolution was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by North Dakota U.S. Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) and in the Senate by U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND). This bill initiates the process for BLM to replace the RMP while preventing the bureaucracy from issuing a substantially similar plan in the future.

"This signing was historic, it reinforces the multiple use mandate the Biden Bureau of Land Management blatantly ignored," said Cramer. "I mean let's face it, it's not a complicated term. Multiple use means multiple use, it doesn't mean single use, it doesn't mean a withdrawal of lands from use at all, it means multiple use. Our landowners, our energy producers, our ranchers, our farmers, really everyone who uses public lands understands this and they can celebrate now knowing the plan has been thrown out."

"I'm looking forward to the Trump administration writing a new one that respects the mandate that Congress gives it, that doesn't just ignore it and do whatever the heck they want," Cramer continued. "I look forward to working with the Trump administration on writing a new one that does all of that. I also just want to congratulate Congresswoman Fedorchak for taking the lead on this. She brought it to her colleagues in the House, she was persuasive, as always, makes the case and makes the argument. As a freshman member in her very first year serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I could not be more honored to be her partner in all of this. This is a big day for North Dakota."

North Dakota Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak with President Donald Trump and North Dakota Senator John Hoeven

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act instructs the BLM's management of public lands. RMPs are the plans outlining the agency's management of its acreage within individual areas. In North Dakota, the BLM is the landlord of 58,500 surface acres and 4.1 million acres of mineral estate. BLM lands are supposed to be managed under a "multiple use" framework, meaning oil, gas, coal, grazers, and recreationists alike can use the land in a sustainable manner.

The Biden administration released its final RMP for North Dakota in August 2024, and adopted it in January without incorporating changes the State of North Dakota and its Congressional delegation requested. Instead, the RMP prohibited coal leasing on over four million acres, or nearly 99% of federal coal acreage in the state. It also blocked 213,000 acres, or 44%, of federally owned fluid mineral acreage, reducing state revenues and weakening American energy dominance. Economic data provided by the state of North Dakota estimates the state would have been deprived of $34 million annually in oil and gas royalties and tax revenue if the Biden RMP would have been implemented.

Cramer led the delegation in securing an opinion from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) affirming the RMP qualified as a rule for purposes of CRA repeal. Fedorchak and Cramer then introduced the joint resolution of disapproval with U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) to overturn the RMP. The Resolution passed the House in September followed by Senate passage in October.