Rule banning off road vehicles in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area overturned
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A passed the U.S. Senate Thursday that would allow the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in areas of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area where it was previously banned.
The use of ORVs and ATVs in Glen Canyon was banned in parts of the park by a enacted during President Biden's administration. The resolution was introduced by Senators John Curtis (R-UT) and Mike Lee (R-UT). passed the House of Representatives last week.
The original rule banned the use of off-road vehicles from an area of Glen Canyon known as the Orange Cliffs Special Management Unit, which makes up 25 miles. The rule was put in place after the (SUWA) and the (NPCA) against the National Park Service over off-road vehicle management in Glen Canyon, and it was intended to protect the environment and visitor experience in the park.
Sen. Curtis said restoring off-road vehicles in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is a step to ensure that public lands remain accessible for the people, 'and not dictated by Washington bureaucrats.'
Senator Curtis also stated:
'Utahns have responsibly accessed Glen Canyon for decades, and Washington's one-size-fits-all restrictions threatened not only that access but also the livelihoods and traditions of rural communities. This legislation restores the balance between conservation and responsible recreation—something Utahns have always led on.'
SUWA and NPCA have strongly criticized this legislation, calling it an 'attack on national parks.' The organizations stressed that the rule did not close any park roads to all motorized vehicle use. The affected roads were only closed to ATVs and OHVs, but they were still open to full size vehicles.
Staff Attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Hanna Larzen stated:
'[Congressional Republicans] voted to undermine the Park Service and instead bowed to extreme motorized recreation in some of the most remote and wild parts of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Today's action means that Orange Cliffs, Gunsight Butte, and Canyonlands National Park's Maze District will be impaired by noisy, destructive off-highway vehicles.'
Erika Bollard, Campaign Director of the Southwest Region for the National Parks Conservation Association, said, 'The Orange Cliffs is a place of rare solitude and unbelievable beauty that creates the once-in-a-lifetime moments so many come to Glen Canyon to experience. That's why the Park Service limited off-road vehicles along some of the most sensitive areas and fragile shorelines.'
Bollard also stated that removing protections is unnecessary and damaging, as more than 250 miles in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are already available for off-road vehicle use.
This resolution comes after legislation passed the House of Representatives that would authorize the sale of federal public lands in Utah. That amendment has been similarly controversial among environmental groups.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
25 minutes ago
- New York Post
Some LA migrant protests fueled by taxpayer-funded group with Dem ties — another with CCP link
One of the groups leading anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles is a taxpayer-funded activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party, while another has links to the Chinese Communist Party. The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) — which received tens of millions of dollars in government grants during the Biden administration — staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city, including those convicted of heinous crimes. 7 CHIRLA staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city. REUTERS Advertisement Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets, assaulting immigration officers, slashing tires and defacing public buildings, the Department of Homeland Security said, prompting President Trump to call in around 2,000 National Guard troops Sunday to quell the violence. According to financial records obtained by DataRepublican, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023, a jump from the $12 million it received the previous year. 7 Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets. REUTERS Advertisement The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS — the very agency the group was protesting last week. The federal agency cut ties with the group and terminated any further funding in March, including clawing back nearly $101,000 in funding that had yet to be paid out. A CHIRLA spokesman denied that the group had anything to do with the violence in a statement to The Post on Sunday. 7 CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023. He said CHIRLA 'organized a press event on Thursday' to protest the round-ups and had 'been sending legal observers to immigration courts and detention centers on Friday, Saturday and today as part of the LA Rapid Response Network. 'We have not participated, coordinated, or been part of the protests being registered in Los Angeles other than the press conference and rally cited above,' the rep said. Advertisement Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, conducting numerous raids in recent weeks and netting 'around 150' arrests, according to Trump's hard-nosed border czar Tom Homan. 7 The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS. REUTERS Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation, which played a part in virulent past anti-Israel campus protests at Columbia University and which was once associated with suspected DC terrorist Elias Rodriguez. PSL has ties to the Chinese Communist Party through funding from socialist billionaire Neville Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, founder of activist group Code Pink, according to a 2024 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute. Singham sunk millions of dollars into backing the groups after selling his software company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017. Advertisement 7 Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. AP Singham's ties to the Chinese government and Communist propaganda are well-documented. The New York Times published a lengthy 2023 expose on his far-reaching money machine, which has steered millions to China-praising nonprofits from South Africa, Ghana and Zambia to Brazil, New Delhi and beyond. The PSL did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Sunday. Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps, leading to officers deploying tear gas and other less-lethal methods of crowd dispersal. 7 Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation. REUTERS More than a dozen arrests were made Saturday, said Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, on X. Images and videos showed hundreds of protesters clashing with riot gear-clad federal agents who were attempting to apprehend illegal immigrants near a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried the raids, the latter claiming the federal agents used tactics that 'sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' Advertisement 7 Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images In a statement on X on Saturday, Newsom wrote, 'Federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice.' In a fiery response to Newsom and Bass on Truth Social Saturday, President Trump said, 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!.'
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicaid & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now
President Donald Trump's 'one big beautiful bill' has passed in the House and is now awaiting Senate approval. If passed, Trump's signature bill would extend the tax cuts granted by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and add additional tax cuts. While this might be welcome news to many, the bill also includes changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could threaten seniors' access to these programs. Find Out: Read Next: 'The 'one big beautiful bill' passed by the House of Representatives, if it were passed into law today, would cut Medicaid and SNAP by a combined $1 trillion,' said Chris Orestis, president of Retirement Genius. 'In addition, because of the increase to federal debt of as much as $5 trillion, the bill would trigger an automatic reduction in Medicare funding of $500 billion,' he continued. 'This would represent the largest cut to social services and health insurance for the poor, disabled, children and the elderly in U.S. history.' Here's a look at the changes retirees can make now to secure care and avoid benefit disruptions if the bill were to pass. Before changes go into effect, check with your healthcare providers to ensure there won't be any interruption to your care if there are cuts to Medicaid. 'Check with your healthcare provider to see if they might cut back on services or cease accepting Medicaid-funded patients, and contact any nursing home where you or a loved one may reside to find out if they will be reducing the number of patients they can support — or even [if they are] possibly planning to close,' Orestis said. Knowing this ahead of time will allow you to find alternative care providers before it's too late. Learn More: If you are reliant on SNAP, start searching for alternatives that may be able to provide food assistance in the event your benefits are reduced or cut. 'Make sure you know where there are local support services through community or faith-based organizations to replace lost access through SNAP,' Orestis said. Many retirees plan to 'spend down' their savings so that they qualify for Medicaid to pay for their long-term care. However, this may no longer be a viable option. 'If you are considering going onto Medicaid for long-term care and are preparing to engage the 'spend down' process to impoverish yourself and get below the poverty level to qualify, you may want to reconsider that strategy, and instead look to leverage private pay resources to pay for your care,' Orestis said. 'If you are on Medicaid, you will primarily be reliant on nursing homes for your care, and their ability to withstand these cuts will be very challenging and up in the air,' he continued. 'If you are private pay, you are in control and can decide where and when you will receive care, such as at home or an assisted living community not funded by Medicaid.' Strategies to stay private pay for long-term care would include long-term care insurance, annuities, a life insurance settlement, a reverse mortgage or VA benefits. Editor's note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on More From GOBankingRates Clever Ways To Save Money That Actually Work in 2025 This article originally appeared on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicaid & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Speaker Johnson teases follow-ups to the ‘one big, beautiful bill'
The 'one big, beautiful bill' may not be so singular, after all. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is teasing follow-up legislation to the megabill of President Trump's tax cut and spending priorities that Republicans can push though using the same special budget reconciliation process that requires only GOP votes. That tool can be used once per fiscal year, with the current fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. So after Republicans are done with the 'big, beautiful bill,' the GOP trifecta has, in theory, two more shots to muscle through party-line legislation before the next Congress comes into power after the midterms. Johnson floated plans for a second reconciliation bill while rebutting concerns from deficit hawks on the budget impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which includes an extension of tax cuts and boosts to border and defense funding, with costs offset in part by new requirements on low-income assistance programs like Medicaid and food aid. 'Everyone here wants to reduce spending,' Johnson said Friday morning on CNBC. 'But you have to do that in a sequence of events. We have a plan, OK? This is the first of a multistep process.' 'We're going to have another reconciliation bill that follows this one, possibly a third one before this Congress is up, because you can have a reconciliation bill for each budget year, each fiscal year. So that's ahead of us,' Johnson continued, also pointing to separate plans to claw back money based on recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'We're also doing rescissions packages. We got the first one delivered this week from the White House, and that will codify many of the DOGE cuts.' The promise of another reconciliation bill is somewhat surprising given the crux of the debate that dominated the early weeks of the year: Should Republicans divide up their agenda into two bills, passing the first quickly to give Trump an early win on boosting funding for border enforcement and deportations? Or would putting all of Trump's priorities into one bill — which would contain both bitter pills and sweeteners for different factions of the razor-thin majority — be a better political strategy? Trump eventually said he preferred 'one big, beautiful bill,' a moniker that became the legislation's official title in the House last month. It's not clear what would be in a second piece of legislation. Multiple House Republicans who spoke with The Hill were unaware of plans for more reconciliation bills and were not sure what could be included in them. 'I think we need to see what's left on the table after the first one,' Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) said. And to muster through multiple reconciliation bills is a delicate prospect. If members know more reconciliation bills are coming, that complicates the argument that everything in the current package — even policies some factions dislike that others love — need to stay in one megabill. The Speaker declined to elaborate on what might be in such a package when asked in a press conference last week. 'I'm not going to tell you that,' Johnson said. 'Let's get the first one done.' 'Look, I say this is the beginning of a process, and what you're going to see is a continuing of us identifying waste, fraud, abuse in government, which is our pledge of common sense, restoring common sense and fiscal sanity. So we have lots of ideas of things that might be in that package.' Republicans had started planning for the current legislative behemoth months before the 2024 election so they would be prepared to quickly execute on their policy wish list if they won the majority. 'This isn't something we just drew up overnight. So, we'll go through that same laborious process,' Johnson said. But some members have ideas of what else they'd like to see. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said that he'd hope a second bill would do more to tackle rolling back green energy tax credits and make further spending cuts. Ultimately, though, it will be Trump's call, Norman said: 'I know when the president gets involved, it adds a lot of value.' And Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) speculated that passing the 'big, beautiful bill' would inspire members to keep going with another bill. 'People like the feeling of winning,' Pfluger said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
