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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
subsurface minerals; access; federal policy
Purpose
Urges the outlined federal authorities to require the legislative approval for new national monuments, compensate states for subsurface mineral rights, streamline the permitting process for western mines and execute strategic land swaps between the federal government and Arizona.
Background
The Antiquities
Act of 1906 authorizes the U.S. President to proclaim national monuments on
federal lands that contain historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric
structures or other objects of historic or scientific interest. In 1943,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Jackson Hole National Monument
in Wyoming, which became Grand Teton National Park, to be a national monument.
This proclamation prompted litigation on the extent of presidential authority
under the Antiquities Act, and led to a 1950 law prohibiting future
establishment of national monuments in Wyoming unless designated by Congress (Congress:
National Monument and Antiquities Act;
54
U.S.C. §§ 320301-320303).
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 establishes public land policy, to establish guidelines for its administration to provide for the management, protection, development and enhancement of the public lands and for other purposes (U.S. BLM). The federal Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 promotes the highest use of the public lands pending its final disposal, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, by order to establish grazing districts or additions thereto and to modify the boundaries thereof, of vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved lands from any part of the public domain of the United States, excluding Alaska, which are not in national forests, national parks and monuments, Indian reservations, revested Oregon and California Railroad grant lands, or revested Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands, and which are deemed chiefly valuable for grazing and raising forage crops (43 U.S.C § 315).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Urges the U.S Congress to:
a) work to amend the Antiquities Act of 1906 and extend the Wyoming exception to Arizona so that no new national monuments can be designated in Arizona without the express authorization of the U.S. Congress, the Arizona Legislature and necessary local governments; and
b) quantify the amount of state trust subsurface mineral rights that are located under federal land withdrawals and compensate states for the value of those subsurface minerals that state land departments are prohibited from accessing due to land withdrawals.
2. Urges the U.S. President to take all necessary policy steps to streamline the permitting process for new mines in the West to increase the ease, speed and ability of private parties to gain access to federal land for critical mineral exploration.
3. Urges the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to work with state legislatures, state land departments, the private industry and private land owners to develop a comprehensive plan to engage in a series of strategic land swaps and subsurface mineral swaps to eliminate the checkerboard patterns of both the surface and subsurface estates and eliminate the split estate in as many places as possible.
4. Urges the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to direct the U.S. BLM to perform a rulemaking that rescinds requirements of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations deemed contrary to the Federal Land Policy Management Act, Stock-Raising Homestead Act and applicable statutory authority to surface estates patented under the Taylor Grazing Act.
5. Directs the Secretary of State to transmit a copy of the memorial to the U.S. President, the President of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Director of the U.S. BLM and each member of Congress from Arizona.
House Action
NREW 2/10/26 DP 5-4-0-1
3rd Read 3/17/26 31-22-6-0-1
Prepared by Senate Research
March 20, 2026
SB/NRG/hk