Republicans passed a little-known law to open the Minnesota desert to mining

Minnesota’s Boundary Waters is the largest wilderness area on the Canadian border, with more than a million acres of untouched forest and thousands of lakes and streams. Easily accessible by boat, it is a natural gem and one of the country’s most popular outdoor recreation spots. On Thursday, Senate Republicans voted 50-49 to open the facility to mining — to give a verdict that ends the 20-year ban using a little-known law called the Congressional Review Act, or CRA.

The act was created in the 1990s by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who wanted to reduce government bureaucracy by deregulation. It was designed to allow Congress to quickly overturn regulatory legislation with a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds vote. Critics say it’s dangerous because it allows federal laws and regulations related to research years to be quickly passed with little controversy.

“It allows Congress to do a thumbs-down or a thumbs-down, where a filibuster would work,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, director of the Western Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit, advocacy group. In the first 20 years of the CRA’s existence, it was used only once by the second Bush administration. But President Trump and the Republicans have worked to expand and develop weapons The CRA, with the Boundary Waters case being the latest example, Schlenker-Goodrich said. In 2017, the Trump administration repealed 17 laws from the Obama era. In 2025 alone, Trump signed 22 CRA repeals.

The CRA technically gives Congress 60 days to repeal the law after it passes. Boundary Waters Protection was passed three years ago during the Biden administration, not as a law, but as a Public Land Order. That puts the Senate and administration in a position that is “legally dubious,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a legislative advocate for Earthjustice. “We haven’t been able to fight, and there are a lot of open questions because this part is unknown.”

The choice can be a dangerous example. If the decision is allowed to stand, it may open all options for site management to political violence. For example, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, has proposed to the CRA to terminate the management plan for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

Schlenker-Goodrich said: Signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, a National Environmental Policy Actor NEPA, requires federal agencies to assess how major development will affect the environment before approving it. This policy has become an important tool for environmentalists, helping to stop or delay large industrial or construction projects. But in recent years, it has also banned the deployment of solar and wind power, as well as restructuring the country’s grid to accommodate new power generation. The NEPA amendment has received broad, conservative support in Congress, but if it matches the CRA’s new use, it could put protected areas at greater risk, Schlenker-Goodrich warned.

Trump’s use of the CRA effectively undermines tribal nations in Boundary Water negotiations. “Three tribes – the Bois Forte Band, the Fond du Lac Band, and the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa – have the right to a treaty in northeastern Minnesota,” said New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich. he said in response at the Senate court. “This right has been guaranteed to them by the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe and has been reaffirmed by state courts time and time again. By repealing the Public Land Order and the CRA resolution, Senate Republicans will not only remove tribes from the discussion. They do not respect the right of tribal association and directly endanger the tribes that have access to their livelihoods and livelihoods.”

The lifting of the mining ban comes despite widespread opposition from environmentalists, the outdoor entertainment industry, and neighboring communities. Minnesota Senator Tina Smith spoke on the Senate floor for five hours Wednesday night to try to block the vote. “The Senate and the House must follow the law,” Smith said. according to CBS News. “They have to follow the rules that they wrote about the way federal laws work in this country. I don’t believe that happened here.”

The main winner in the Boundary Waters debate is Twin Metals, sponsored by Chilean outfit Antofagasta. The company fought the first Trump administration to build copper and nickel mine at the Duluth Complex, one of the world’s largest mineral deposits located 5 miles south of the Boundary Waters. At the time, the company was run by billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who has come under fire for his ties to the Trump family – particularly for renting an apartment in Washington, DC to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka. Although Luksic stepped down from Antofagasta’s board, his family controls most of the company’s operations.

“Corruption by the world’s rich is a big part of this,” Miller-McFeeley said. So are data centers. Since assuming office, the administration has rushed to expand domestic production of the essential mineral — the equipment needed for computers, batteries, renewable energy, and military technology.

Copper is very important in the development of modern technology. Analytics giant S&P Global published a report earlier this year warned that demand for copper is expected to increase 50 percent by 2040. Another recent report from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace predicted that there will be a significant shortage of nickel by the year 2035, mainly due to demand from the defense industry and “the limited ability of the United States to increase domestic productivity.” More importantly, the report recommended ending international cooperation, instead of opening protected areas to mining, and it will take more than mining to make the US self-sufficient in complex minerals. The country has only three copper smelters and no nickel, making production very difficult. Antofagasta can “export its products to be processed and sold onshore, and then sold back to the US,” Miller-McFeeley said.

Even if this is just a test for the authorities to see how they can push the limits of the law, it will also set the government up against its own investigators. “The US Forest Service is 100 percent against mining in these areas,” said Marc Fink, director of the Public Lands Law Center and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. In 2016, the Forest Service determined that the copper sulphide-ore mine, as Twin Metals is considering, could bring “great harm” and “very bad” to the area.

“This goes against the science and the regulatory agencies,” Fink said. “It’s very sad, but we’re going to keep fighting.”

The Boundary Waters bill will now go to President Trump’s desk. He is expected to sign.

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