A Weird Policy Split Between the Federal Land Agencies

My impression is that the Trump administration’s policy efforts have so far been executed with discipline, coordination, clear purpose, and skill. But there’s an outlier, and it’s very strange.

First the good part:

The US Department of Agriculture has opened a new website for farmers and ranchers to report being targeted by lawfare, after federal prosecutors dropped aggressive Biden-era criminal charges against a South Dakota ranching family accused of incorrectly placing a very old fence in a way that allowed their cattle to access public land without permission. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins held a press conference to announce the new lawfare website, encouraging the victims of inappropriate federal regulatory efforts over land use to come forward and ask for help.

The USDA effort precisely aligns with Trump administration policy, reflecting the recent executive order that restricts prosecution over regulatory disputes. “We are ending regulation by prosecution in America,” Rollins said, in a pitch perfect statement of a wise new policy course.

But the USDA oversees about 200 million acres of public land in the United States, while the Department of the Interior “oversees roughly 420 million acres of federal lands, nearly 55 million acres of tribal lands, more than 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, and about 2.5 billion acres of the outer continental shelf.” Interior has extraordinary reach, and it exercises its authority over public lands in ways that have been deeply consequential for farmers and ranchers — as when Interior settled a lawsuit that will end most historic ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore, in what looks like a friendly “sue and settle” maneuver that the government welcomed and celebrated. Lawfare on Department of the Interior lands matters. And so here’s an interesting comparison between the USDA’s lawfare effort….

….and Interior’s lawfare effort:

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is fighting back against lawfare over public lands. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who has been silent on the Point Reyes settlement, doesn’t appear to have joined the fight. The Trump administration’s land use agencies aren’t pursing the same policy course.

I’ve asked USDA and Interior to discuss the policy split, and will post an update if they respond.