Malheur Community Empowerment Act

Summary#

This bill would create a grazing management program on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Malheur County, Oregon. The program would let authorized grazing permittees and lessees use defined operational flexibilities — like short seasonal shifts in grazing, small changes in pasture rotation dates, and moving water placement up to 100 yards — when monitoring shows it would help long-term ecological health. The bill requires cooperative monitoring plans, annual reports, and public and tribal consultation when developing grazing alternatives.

The bill also creates the Malheur C.E.O. Group, an 18-member local advisory and project group with voting and nonvoting seats for ranchers, conservation groups, tribes, State and local agencies, and Federal agencies. The group would propose restoration, invasive species control, water and spring work, cultural site conservation, recreation, and monitoring projects. Federal approval is required for projects on Federal land or using Federal funds.

The bill would designate about 1,102,393 acres of BLM land in Malheur County as new wilderness areas, listed by name and map references, and set rules for managing those areas consistent with the Wilderness Act. It also would release certain wilderness study areas from further wilderness study and direct their management under normal BLM planning.

The Burns Paiute Tribe would be able to transfer or convey certain parcels (including the Jonesboro Ranch area and other specified parcels) to the United States to be taken into trust for the Tribe and become part of the Tribe’s reservation. The bill would also create a Castle Rock co-stewardship area with a memorandum of understanding for Tribal co-management. Some lands taken into trust would be withdrawn from certain public land and mineral entry laws, subject to valid existing rights.

The bill includes review and potential termination or modification of the grazing program after multi-year reviews, and it states that existing grazing privileges, valid water rights, and existing uses are not automatically changed by the Act.

What it means for you#

• If you hold a grazing permit or lease on BLM land in Malheur County, you could request alternatives that allow short-term changes in grazing timing, pasture rotation, or water placement under defined conditions and with monitoring.
• Local groups and residents can participate in the Malheur C.E.O. Group and in public meetings; the group can propose projects on Federal and non-Federal land but projects on Federal land still need Federal agency approval.
• Tribal members of the Burns Paiute Tribe could gain trust land and co-stewardship roles for certain areas identified in the bill.
• Visitors and nearby residents would see many new wilderness designations that change allowable uses inside those boundaries consistent with the Wilderness Act, while grazing that existed before enactment may continue under specified rules.
• Land that was a wilderness study area could be released from study and managed under typical BLM land use plans.

Expenses#

• The bill authorizes $1,000,000 per year for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2036 to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out section 4 (Malheur C.E.O. Group). Of those amounts, no more than 5 percent may be used for administration in any fiscal year, and not more than 10 percent may be used for grants to the Malheur C.E.O. Group in any fiscal year.
• The bill authorizes $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 to carry out the land conveyance and trust activities for the Burns Paiute Tribe and Castle Rock provisions.
• No publicly available information on other estimated costs, savings, or broader budgetary effects beyond these authorized amounts.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.