Tribes Call the Grand Staircase Monument Plan Essential

A plan from Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy to overturn Biden era management guidelines for Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument using the Congressional Review Act missed its deadline Thursday, leaving the 1.9 million acre protected area's 2025 management plan intact.

Lee and Maloy argued the 2025 guidelines went too far in restricting road access and other uses, while a coalition of Native American tribes celebrated the outcome, saying the current plan protects ancestral lands, cultural sites, and a new framework for tribal consultation and shared stewardship.

With the fast track pathway now closed, Lee would need 60 Senate votes to overcome a filibuster, a threshold the tribal coalition said he is unlikely to reach.

The monument's contested history spans decades, from its creation under President Bill Clinton in 1996 to boundary reductions under President Trump in 2017 and full restoration under President Biden in 2021.

The 60-day window for overturning Grand Staircase-Escalante's management plan closed Thursday evening without a vote, leaving the 2025 rules for roads, grazing and camping across 1.9 million acres intact, Utah News Dispatch reports. Senator Mike Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy, who pressed the rollback over restricted road access, lost this round, while Autumn Gillard of the Inter-Tribal Coalition counted a first: Tribal co-stewardship written into a surviving federal plan. Overturning a monument plan through the review act would have been a congressional first, and Lee now needs 60 votes past the filibuster, which the coalition calls unlikely the Salt Lake Tribune. Their joint statement vows unchanged focus, so the next attempt must run through ordinary Senate arithmetic.