WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) strongly opposes the use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to disapprove the 2025 Monument Management Plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. NCAI urges Congress to vote "no" on H.J. Res. 151 and S.J. Res. 109, which would overturn the Grand Staircase-Escalante Resource Management Plan and eliminate critical protections for Tribal Nations’ cultural resources, sacred places, and ancestral homelands.

“The Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape is inseparable from the histories, cultures, and lifeways of the Tribal Nations who have inhabited this land since time immemorial,” said NCAI President Mark Macarro. “This plan was developed through years of public input, scientific research, and meaningful Tribal consultation. Overturning it through the Congressional Review Act would disregard Tribal engagement, weaken protections for sacred places, and create unnecessary uncertainty for Tribal Nations and surrounding communities.”

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, first designated in 1996, protects nearly 1.9 million acres in southern Utah. The landscape includes places of immense religious, spiritual, historic, and cultural significance, including ancestral footprints, petroglyphs, springs, plants, animals, and other resources central to Tribal Nations’ ways of life.

The 2025 Monument Management Plan includes important resource management directives that support the protection of Tribal cultural resources and sacred places, including the consideration of Indigenous Knowledge. NCAI is deeply concerned that the legislation now before Congress would eliminate these protections without the same level of consultation and engagement that shaped the plan.

Federal planning documents such as the Grand Staircase-Escalante Resource Management Plan provide transparency, trust, and informed decision-making for Tribal Nations with sovereign interests in protecting irreplaceable cultural landscapes. NCAI strongly opposes the continued misuse of the CRA to undo years of Tribal engagement and federal planning processes.

Using the CRA to overturn resource management plans also sets a dangerous precedent. Until recently, resource management plans had not been treated as rules subject to CRA review. This approach creates legal uncertainty, undermines informed land-use decisions, and places ancestral lands, cultural sites, and sacred resources at greater risk of looting, vandalism, and degradation.

NCAI calls on Congress to uphold Tribal consultation, protect sacred and culturally significant landscapes, and reject H.J. Res. 151 and S.J. Res. 109.

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