H.J.Res. 140, signed into law on April 27, 2026, cancelled a 20-year federal mining ban on 225,504 acres of National Forest land in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties in northeastern Minnesota — land bordering the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the 1854 Ceded Territory of the Lake Superior Chippewa. The ban had been imposed by the Bureau of Land Management through Public Land Order No. 7917 in January 2023. Congress voided it under the Congressional Review Act.
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN-8), whose district includes the affected land, with four co-sponsors. It passed both chambers and was signed in April 2026.
What the BLM Order Had Done
Public Land Order No. 7917, issued by the BLM in January 2023, withdrew 225,504 acres of National Forest land from mineral entry and geothermal leasing for 20 years. The land is part of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota, located in the watershed that drains into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — a protected wilderness area that encompasses more than one million acres and is one of the most visited wilderness areas in the country.
The BLM framed the withdrawal as protective of the Boundary Waters watershed: copper-nickel sulfide mining in the area would use water-intensive processes that, BLM determined, posed an unacceptable risk of acid mine drainage into the watershed. The 1854 Ceded Territory designation is also significant — the Lake Superior Chippewa ceded the land to the United States in 1854 but retained treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the ceded area. The BLM's withdrawal factored in those treaty rights in determining the appropriate use of the land.
How H.J.Res. 140 Cancelled It
The Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801–808) allows Congress to nullify regulations issued by executive agencies through a joint resolution of disapproval passed by both chambers and signed by the President. The CRA applies to "rules" as defined in the Administrative Procedure Act, which includes BLM land orders issued through the rulemaking process.
H.J.Res. 140 is titled: "Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to Public Land Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, MN." The disapproval resolution invokes the CRA directly — it doesn't repeal the order through ordinary legislation, but declares it null and void as if it had never been issued, which is the CRA's standard language.
Under the CRA, once a rule is voided through a disapproval resolution, the agency is also prohibited from issuing a rule that is "substantially the same" without new congressional authorization. This means the BLM cannot simply reissue Public Land Order No. 7917 or a substantively similar order without Congress affirmatively authorizing it to do so.
The Effect: Land Open Again for Mineral Leasing
With the withdrawal nullified, the 225,504 acres reverts to its prior status under the Mining Law of 1872 and applicable National Forest rules — open to mineral exploration and leasing applications. Companies that had been pursuing copper-nickel sulfide mining in the area can now resume permitting processes.
Importantly, the CRA disapproval doesn't grant a mining permit or approve any specific project. It removes the withdrawal that had blocked mineral entry. Any mining project still requires a full permitting process, environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, and Clean Water Act permits — processes that can take years and can result in project denial. The BLM withdrawal was one barrier; its removal opens the process, not the mine.
The Context: Twin Metals Minnesota
The proximate cause of the BLM's 2023 withdrawal was the proposed Twin Metals Minnesota copper-nickel mine near Ely, Minnesota, which had been progressing through federal permitting for more than a decade before the Biden administration cancelled its mineral leases in 2022 and the BLM issued the broader withdrawal in 2023. Twin Metals has been the center of a sustained political dispute between Minnesota mining communities, tribal nations, and environmental advocates over the economic and environmental tradeoffs of sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.