Public Lands
Congress Will Examine Tribal Land Bills
The House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will examine two bills on September 17 that address tribal land and resource rights in Alaska and...
Nine Land Bills Advance Through House Subcommittee Hearing
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands advanced nine bills on September 2, spanning everything from river designations to experimental...
Army Corps Environmental Infrastructure Assistance
Environmental infrastructure assistance authorities, first authorized in 1992 under the Water Resources Development Act, support projects at publicly owned...
Electricity Transmission Corridor Designations Stalled
The Department of Energy announced on August 12 that it would not proceed with designating three proposed National Interest Electricity Transmission...
House Rejects Deep Admin Cuts On Land Management, CRS Says
A stark divide has emerged over the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and what House appropriators are willing to provide, and the outcome will shape how the...
Bureau Backs Water Storage Projects With $3B Over Decade
Congress has directed more than $3 billion toward western water storage over roughly a decade through three major legislative vehicles, according to a...
Congress Challenges Trump Over Conservation Fund Spending
Congress continues to debate how the Land and Water Conservation Fund's $900 million in annual mandatory spending should be used as lawmakers review the...
Trump Administration Cuts Army Corps Funding Programs
The Trump administration has starved the Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) continuing authorities programs of funding in fiscal 2025, leaving municipalities...
House Passes Mining Bill Locking in Expedited Environmental Reviews
The House passed the Protecting Domestic Mining Act on a narrow, nearly party-line vote on September 2, advancing legislation that would lock in expedited...
Marine Mammal Act Faces Pressure From Climate, Competing Uses
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Marine Mammal Protection Act reveals mounting tensions between conservation and competing ocean uses,...
Congress Weighs Competing Plans to Overhaul Army Corps Water Projects
Two competing bills in Congress would reshape how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages water resources projects, but they diverge on scope and...
House Passes North Atlantic Right Whale Regulation Extension
The House passed H.R. 9436 in a sharply divided vote on September 1, with Republicans largely backing an extension of the Trump administration's preferred...
Program Compensates $733M To Counties for Federal Land Tax Loss
Federal lands cover vast swaths of the country but generate no local property tax revenue. Counties containing those lands must still fund schools, roads,...
House Panel Examines Cyber Threats and Rising Water Costs
Water and wastewater sector utility companies in at least seven states reported cybersecurity incidents to the FBI since July 27, 2026, and some of that...
Water Systems Face Widespread Cyber Vulnerabilities
Attackers remotely accessed internet-facing devices, changed IP addresses and passwords, and caused utilities to lose monitoring and control capabilities. A...
GAOA's Land Restoration Fund Faces $46.2B Maintenance Backlog
Total deferred maintenance across the five LRF-beneficiary agencies increased approximately $19.4 billion (75%) from FY2020 to FY2025, reaching an estimated...
U.S. Advances Seabed Mining Leases Amid Congressional Divide
The Trump administration is rapidly advancing seabed mining off U.S. coasts, and Congress is sharply divided on whether the strategy will help secure...
Army Corps' CAPs Receive $33.1M Despite Budget Request for Zero
The Trump administration's fiscal 2026 budget request excludes all funding for the Army Corps of Engineers' Continuing Authorities Programs (CAPs), a move...