Sponsor
Celeste Maloy
Representative · R-UT
Representative · R-UT
The bill improves short-term resilience for ranchers after disasters by easing temporary access and allowing on-site improvements, at the cost of added biosecurity, administrative, and taxpayer risks if oversight, coordination, and guidance are imperfect.
Ranchers and permitted livestock operators can temporarily use nearby vacant allotments when their primary allotments are unusable after wildfire, drought, or other disasters, helping sustain operations and local agricultural incomes.
Forest Service and BLM will be required to coordinate to make vacant allotments available across jurisdictions, reducing administrative delays and smoothing access for displaced permit holders.
Permit holders may install temporary rangeland improvements (portable corrals, fencing, water troughs), enabling better animal care and safer livestock management while displaced.
Allowing temporary movement of livestock and changes in livestock class raises disease and invasive-species risks that could harm local herds, wildlife, and dependent communities if biosecurity isn't strictly managed.
Expanded temporary access and on-the-ground improvements could create additional monitoring, restoration, or rehabilitation costs for federal land managers that effectively fall to taxpayers and local communities.
Temporary use and infrastructure changes may conflict with existing management plans, wildlife protections, or state agreements, generating local disputes and extra administrative burdens for governments.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes temporary use of vacant federal grazing allotments for permit/lease holders when their allotments are unusable due to unforeseen natural events, with agency guidelines and land-health safeguards.
Official title: To amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to improve the management of grazing permits and leases, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 17, 2025 by Celeste Maloy · Last progress July 17, 2025
Allows ranchers who hold federal grazing permits or leases to temporarily use nearby vacant federal grazing allotments when their regular allotments become unusable after unexpected natural events (for example drought, wildfire, insect infestation, extreme weather, or blight). The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior must set terms, coordinate between agencies, permit temporary range improvements, evaluate land health periodically, and issue guidelines within one year to govern temporary reassignments and durations based on restoration needs. The law preserves existing processes and authorities while creating a temporary-use authorization to help maintain livestock operations and support land recovery after disasters.