This resolution would reject a regulation issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) known as “Planning 2.0” which changed the way that land use plans are developed under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). The rule took effect during the final days of the Obama administration on January 11, 2017.

The “Planning 2.0” rule was intended to open up the land use planning process to a variety of stakeholders, including states, local governments, groups with an interest in outdoor recreation or environmental protection, and the public at large. It also directs the BLM to do landscape scale planning, meaning that a land use plan could include areas across state lines or BLM districts. Critics say that these components of the rule undercut the voice of local and state interests in the land use planning process, because decisions in those cases would move decision making away from local BLM offices to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress is able to overturn regulations finalized within the last 60 legislative days with simple majority votes on a joint resolution of disapproval in both chambers and the president’s signature. CRA resolutions also prevent the federal agency that created the regulation from issuing a similar rule without being directed to do so by Congress.