Stauber Introduces Resolution to Overturn Biden's Mining Ban in Northern Minnesota
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, Congressman Pete Stauber introduced H.J. Res. 140, a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that would reverse the Biden Administration’s illegal mining ban in Northern Minnesota. Following the resolution’s introduction, Congressman Stauber released the following statement:
“The Biden Administration’s decision to enact its illegal mining ban in Northern Minnesota was not only an attack on our way of life and cost countless good-paying, union jobs, it also put our nation’s mineral security at risk. By locking up the Duluth Complex—the world’s largest untapped copper-nickel deposit—President Biden cemented our nation’s reliance on foreign adversarial nations like China for critical minerals that will be necessary for the United States to compete and win in the 21st Century.
“I am proud to stand with the hardworking men and women of Northern Minnesota and protect our region’s way of life and our rich, 145-year mining history. I look forward to Congress’s swift consideration of H.J. Res. 140, so we can send this resolution to President Trump’s desk and prevent future administrations from enacting similar, dangerous mining bans in the future.”
Background: In January 2023, the Department of the Interior, at the direction of former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, issued Public Land Order (PLO) 7917, instituting a 20-year mineral withdrawal covering 225,504 acres in the Superior National Forest in Northern Minnesota. This mineral withdrawal banned mining and other responsible resource extraction in a strategically significant area of the Duluth Complex, which is the largest untapped copper-nickel deposit in the world. Under the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the Department of the Interior is required to notify Congress of public land orders impacting an excess of 5,000 acres. The Biden Administration failed to properly transmit PLO 7917 to Congress in January 2023.
Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Congress has the authority to review and disapprove of federal actions within 60 Senate session days of the action’s submission to Congress. If a CRA joint resolution of disapproval addressing a federal action is passed by both chambers and signed by the President, it is nullified and ceases to have effect (or is treated as never having taken effect). Additionally, under the CRA’s substantially similar provision, when a federal action is successfully disapproved of by Congress, the executive branch is prohibited
from taking a substantially similar action in the future. Now that the Trump Administration has properly transmitted PLO 7917 to Congress, it is now eligible for Congressional review under the CRA.
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