We know things can get chaotic when a session of Congress ends (every two years) or a new Administration comes in. This article is intended to give you some guidance and information as advocacy essentially resets to address incoming changes. 

All of our litigation aimed at holding BLM accountable to the law and gaining real management plans, where your voice and the needs of our herds are included, remains active. We have been busy making deadlines to protect our wild ones from further habitat loss and abuses.

It seems strange to have to add this, but due to emails we are receiving it appears to be necessary: Just because we report on something, does not mean we approve of, or endorse, the issue. 

Congress: Many of you are asking us about things like the SAFE Act (protection from export for slaughter) and The Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act (commonly references as the “Titus Bill” that halts helicopter roundups. All un-passed legislation (bills) died with the last session of Congress and must be reintroduced. As soon as we have bill numbers for you to reference, we will let you know so you can begin the process of helping get the bills to a floor vote.

Congress is still working on a budget bill for funding the government for the rest of 2025. What we are seeing right now is simply a “status quo” funding for the Wild Horse and Burro Program (increase of funding for population growth suppression, maintaining language against killing healthy wild horses and open sales). We were told that getting any changes for FY2025 are highly unlikely as Congress is debating “more important” issues (that is a quote from many aides).

However, we are hearing this debate is shifting quickly into areas that do include open sales to slaughter, killing wild ones in holding and selling off public lands or giving those lands to states (essentially wiping out all protections afforded by the 1971 Act). We will keep you posted and we are ready to take meaningful action.

The most frequently asked questions we are getting is about leadership and any plans from the new Administration. 

What we know so far:

Two actions taken so far: Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and changing Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley. Livestock grazing fees for public lands for 2025 were set at $1.35 per Animal Unit Month (cow/calf pair, one horse, five sheep each month) and remains the only cost in the country that has remained essentially unchanged since it was set in 1966 at $1.23 (less than a single can of dog food).

On February 3rd Doug Burgum (former Governor of North Dakota) was sworn in as the new Secretary of Interior. You can read his press release and opening statement HERE. The focus was on “energy priorities” and referencing our public lands as “national assets.”

His first round of Directives can be found HERE. All of them focused on pushing energy issues including opening Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling. The other focal point is “deregulation.” “Interior will eliminate at least 10 existing regulations for every new one introduced and ensure that the costs of new regulations are offset by removing the costs of previous ones. All of the Department’s bureaus and offices are tasked with streamlining financial management and reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

Laws are passed by Congress. Regulations outlined how the law is implemented and must go through a specific process before becoming a regulation (including steps like public comment). You can access the entire Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for the Department of Interior HERE. 

Jon Raby, currently still listed as the Nevada State BLM Director on the BLM leadership webpage (and former Montana State Director) is now the Acting BLM Chief at this time. Ruhs was appointed as the NV BLM Director in 2019. We do not know if we will see a litany of Acting Directors that are never confirmed (as we did the last time under this President) or if there will be a nomination and Senate confirmation hearing for Raby or another person.

UPDATE: Raby was not chosen for nomination. The White House has nominated Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, to be the BLM director, according to Congress.gov. Sgamma’s oil and gas trade group has long advocated for greater industry access to public lands and less regulation of oil and gas and mining interests.

Holle Waddel is still listed as the Wild Horse and Burro Program Chief. Since 2017, BLM removed the leadership chart for this program offline and never replaced it. There could have been a change, but it has not been published anywhere as of yet.

On January 28, BLM updated the roundup schedule to affirm that the “Path Forward” agenda incorporated in 2018 and carried through under the last transition, continues unchanged at this time. Under Stone-Manning as BLM Director under the last administration, the Wild Horse and Burro Program was the only program where directives from William Perry-Pendley were never reviewed or changed. The massive roundup scheduled in Wyoming this summer is on track to hit the Rock Springs “Complex” area and start with the zero out and reduction of the population in HMAs in the area by 60%.

The directives and changes we are seeing are not “wild horse and burro specific” at this time. We will update you as we gain more information from our contacts in DC and give you appropriate action items. 

We expect wild horses and burros in holding to be a hot area of debate in the next 60 days and prepared a series of articles to help you prepare. The series begins with a brief we filed last month in the Ninth Circuit addressing welfare issues behind the closed door of private facilities. You can access the series HERE. 

Scoping for a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) for Jackson Mountain has begun. This is an indication that our court wins of 2024 are becoming more of a priority for BLM. The next battle is to ensure the HMAP process provides the transparency and analysis that has been denied for over 40 years. (More HERE ,and an action item)

Our team is working hard in the field and in the courts to protect and preserve our wild ones. Without your support, none of our work is possible. Thank you for keeping WHE running for our wild ones!