Senate Deadline Passes, Protecting Grand Staircase Plan

The Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition is celebrating after a key U.S. Senate deadline passed Thursday without action on legislation that sought to overturn the 2025 management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The coalition said the Senate’s failure to act on S.J.Res. 109 before the June 11 deadline means the measure would now require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster rather than a simple majority, making its passage far less likely.

Although companion legislation, H.J.Res. 151, could still receive votes in Congress, coalition members welcomed the missed deadline as an important victory for Tribal co-stewardship and consultation efforts.

“We celebrate with gratitude today that Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s 2025 management plan still stands. That plan, for the first time, heeded our voices and our Traditional Knowledge by establishing a framework for Tribal co-stewardship over our ancestral lands,” said Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition Coordinator Autumn Gillard, Southern Paiute.

“Overturning Grand Staircase-Escalante’s management plan using the Congressional Review Act would have been a direct strike against the Federal government’s duty to consult with Tribes. Grand Staircase’s resource management plan protects cultural places, petroglyphs, pictographs, and structures. These places are still important for traditions, ceremonies, and domestic life,” Gillard said.

“Removing the plan would have created a greater risk of looting, vandalism, graffiti, and degradation. Tribes are the original stewards of these lands, and we are thankful that our voices will still be consulted as such,” she added.

The coalition noted that the 2025 management plan established a Tribal co-stewardship framework, formalized government-to-government consultation, and provides protections for ancestral lands, cultural sites, fossils, wildlife, endangered plants, and water resources within the monument.

“We are thankful today as the original stewards and managers of the Grand Staircase-Escalante natural landscape — above and below,” said Georgie Pongyesva, Hopi. “Our holistic cultural connections are not bound to borders — they are braided together by the waters that flow from the Escalante River to the Colorado River.”

“We have spent years working toward establishing a co-stewardship framework that allows us to enact our Traditional Knowledge to help heal the land, plants, animals, and precious waters at Grand Staircase-Escalante,” Pongyesva added.

The National Congress of American Indians joined the coalition in opposing the use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn the management plan, arguing that doing so would undermine years of Tribal consultation and public engagement.

“If critics believe parts of the Grand Staircase plan should be changed, they should say which parts and why,” said Erik Stanfield, an anthropologist with the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department. “They should make that case in public. They should not pretend the process never happened. They should not use an obscure Congressional procedure to erase years of work because the final compromise did not tilt far enough in their favor.”

The monument’s management plan was finalized in January 2025 following a two-year public process that included consultation with Tribes and input from thousands of Americans.

“As a Diné woman, I speak from my perspective and from the teachings of Hózhó, which call us to live in balance and to care for the land in a good way. Grand Staircase-Escalante is a living ancestral homeland, and our responsibility to protect it comes from the teachings passed down by our ancestors long before any federal designation,” said Davina Smith-Idjesa, the coalition’s Navajo representative.

“We, too, as Navajo people, have ancestral homes and cultural connections within this landscape,” Smith-Idjesa said. “I also support in respect and solidarity with our other Tribal Nations whose sacred ancestral homelands, petroglyphs, pictographs, and ancestral places are rooted here.”

“We as an Inter-Tribal Coalition remain committed to advocating to ensure these lands are protected for future generations. This is about honoring our ancestors, safeguarding living culture, and carrying our shared responsibility as Indigenous caretakers,” she continued.

The coalition said it will continue urging lawmakers to oppose both S.J.Res. 109 and H.J.Res. 151 should either measure come up for future votes in Congress.

Related