The Epstein files, Venezuela, ICE raids, concentration camps, American citizens killed on the streets, a measles epidemic, Iran — the list goes on and on. This Republican president and his compliant Congress are making daily headlines for their incompetence, grift and malfeasance. 

Unfortunately, the headlines we read are only the tip of the iceberg. While we reel from the daily onslaught, equally bad Republican shenanigans are happening below our radar.

It barely made back page news when the House of Representatives activated the rarely used Congressional Review Act (CRA) to allow mining in the protected headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota. Now the Republican-led U.S. Senate is poised to vote on the issue in March, and it’s almost certain they’ll vote along party lines. This use of the CRA is threatening to open the floodgates to attack land management plans throughout the country. 

The CRA was developed 30 years ago in the Newt Gingrich era to allow Congress, by a simple majority vote, to overturn federal agency regulations. Under the provisions of the CRA, agencies are required to submit new rules to Congress. The act provides expedited procedures to bypass regulations, provided the vote to overturn is taken within 60 legislative days of introduction to Congress. 

The CRA threat is already expanding to allow mining and drilling to defile some of our nation’s most iconic lands. In late February, Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah asked the Government Accountability Office to rule on whether the CRA could be used to overturn a Resource Management Plan (RMP). 

Her target was the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, 1.9 million acres of stunning red rock wilderness in southern Utah. The GAO ruled that, indeed, in their view, the CRA was applicable to an entire RMP. 

Immediately after the GAO determined it was applicable, Maloy and Utah Senator Mike Lee introduced a CRA in the House and Senate to undo the RMP for Grand Staircase-Escalante, marking the first time that a national monument has come under attack. 

Lee and Maloy’s introduction on Feb. 26 started the 60-day clock ticking. If the CRA is successful, any new RMP cannot be similar to the RMP that was thrown out. In other words, by a simple majority vote, Congress can create chaos on the land, leaving everyone involved confused about what they can and cannot do.

The creation of the RMP for the Grand Staircase-Escalante took three and a half years to develop. In a democratic process, the Bureau of Land Management solicited the input of businesses and residents of the gateway communities, local ranchers, hikers, tourists, the five tribes in the area, outfitters and interested citizens to develop the management plan. 

Now, in a very undemocratic process, a simple majority of the Republican-controlled House and Senate could negate all these thousands of hours of work.

Grand Staircase-Escalante is a remarkable place. Within its acreage, there are 660 species of bees endemic to the monument. That is almost 20 percent of the number of bee species in the whole U.S. There are creosote bushes that are almost 12,000 years old. 

There are thousands of petroglyphs and pictographs, scores of ancient granaries and cliff dwellings, some with corn-grinding metates still in place, and there are dramatic arches and verdant rivers and creeks. Protecting this living laboratory is essential.

Defeating the CRA’s destruction of Grand Staircase-Escalante is critical, not only to save this extraordinary place, but to set a precedent for all the other public lands that are managed for the benefit of every American. 

Oregon has four national monuments, many wildlife refuges and several national forests. All of these have management plans. All are susceptible to being CRA’d. The majority of Oregon’s congressional delegation is against the CRAs being used as a blunt instrument to destroy lands that belong to you. If you have friends in other states, urge them to contact their representatives to stop the misuse of this obscure act.

David Funk is on the steering committee of Oregon Friends of Utah Wilderness.