Trump Signs Resolution Nullifying Biden-Era BLM Plan for North Dakota Federal Lands

President Trump signed Public Law 119-49 into law on June 10, 2026, enacting a congressional resolution that disapproves and nullifies the Bureau of Land Management's North Dakota Field Office Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan.

2 million acres of federal mineral estate in western North Dakota managed by the BLM's North Dakota Field Office. The disapproved plan governed oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing, solid minerals, and recreation on those lands.

The resolution was passed under the Congressional Review Act. It returns the affected lands to the management framework that existed before the now-vacated plan took effect, and the disapproval takes force immediately upon enactment. The BLM must now operate under the previous Resource Management Plan for the field office until it completes a new planning process.

Lease sales scheduled under the 2024 plan are canceled, and any environmental impact statements or lease stipulations unique to the disapproved document no longer apply. Industry operators seeking new drilling permits will face the regulatory requirements in force prior to the plan's adoption rather than the tighter surface-use and seasonal restrictions it imposed.

The agency must update its internal guidance and notify permit applicants of the restored baseline.

This marks the second use of the Congressional Review Act this Congress to overturn a BLM resource management plan. The original North Dakota plan was finalized in 2024 under the Biden administration following a multi-year environmental review that began in 2020.

Congress has used similar CRA resolutions in the past two years to target other federal land-use rules issued in the prior administration.

The text of the law identifies the precise Federal Register notice being disapproved: the Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan for the North Dakota Field Office published by the Department of the Interior.