1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I urge you to vote against House Joint Resolution 140 immediately. This resolution is moving toward a final vote and threatens to unravel over a century of public land protections through an unprecedented misuse of the Congressional Review Act. Every day that passes brings us closer to a vote that would set a catastrophic precedent, allowing any future Congress to retroactively erase land protections with a simple majority vote and putting places from Devils Tower to Mesa Verde at risk. The CRA was designed in the 1990s to overturn last-minute regulations within a 60-day window. Land withdrawals are not regulations. They are exercises of presidential authority granted by Congress through laws like the General Mining Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act. HJR 140 reclassifies conservation as a "rule" years after the fact, claiming the review clock never started. If this interpretation stands, no protected land in America would be secure. This is not theoretical. Once this precedent is set, it cannot be undone. The specific case involves Minnesota's Rainy River watershed, which feeds directly into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park. The proposed Twin Metals copper mine would involve sulfide-ore mining, the most pollution-prone form of mining on Earth. Not a single comparable mine has operated without contaminating water. The mine would be owned and operated by Antofagasta PLC, a Chilean company with a track record of violations, with profits flowing to Chile and copper sold on the global market to the highest bidder. The economic argument fails scrutiny. Twin Metals estimates 2,000 total jobs, but the Boundary Waters currently supports over 17,000 permanent jobs through tourism and recreation. The mine's jobs would last only as long as the copper, while destroying the wilderness would eliminate existing livelihoods. Polling shows Minnesotans in Representative Pete Stauber's own district overwhelmingly oppose this mine. Time is running out. I ask you to protect the integrity of American public lands law and vote no on HJR 140 before this resolution reaches the floor. The precedent this resolution creates far outweighs any short-term mining interest, and once passed, the damage cannot be reversed.