H.R. 3397 would direct the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw the proposed rule, “Conservation and Landscape Health,” as published in the Federal Register in April 2023. The bill also would prohibit BLM from implementing any substantially similar rule.
Under the proposed regulation, BLM would lease federal land for conservation purposes to private entities or individuals in return for rent and other fees, which would be recorded in the budget as offsetting receipts (or reductions in direct spending). Some of those receipts would be available for spending without further appropriation. The proposed rule does not specify the amount of land that BLM would make available, and it does not define acceptable conservation practices for leased land, terms of leases, or fee structures. Rather, BLM requested public feedback to help inform its decisions about the nature of such leases.
CBO cannot determine the extent that conservation leases implemented under the proposed rule would affect land that under current law will generate receipts from other activities. (Some land under BLM’s jurisdiction generates receipts from the sale of timber or the mining of oil, natural gas, or other subsurface minerals.)
