I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2238
To allow holders of certain grazing permits to make minor range improve-
ments and to require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary
of the Interior respond to requests for range improvements within 30
days, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Mr. V
ASQUEZ(for himself, Ms. MALOY, and Mr. ZINKE) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources,
and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To allow holders of certain grazing permits to make minor
range improvements and to require that the Secretary
of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior respond
to requests for range improvements within 30 days, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ranching Without Red 4
Tape Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. MINOR RANGE IMPROVEMENTS UNDER USFS GRAZ-1
ING PERMITS. 2
(a) M
INORRANGEIMPROVEMENTS BY PERMIT-3
TEES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enact-4
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue regulations al-5
lowing a permittee to carry out a minor range improve-6
ment on the lands with respect to which the permittee 7
holds a grazing permit if— 8
(1) the permittee notifies the applicable Forest 9
Service district ranger at least 30 days prior to car-10
rying out such minor range improvement; and 11
(2) such applicable district ranger— 12
(A) approves the minor range improve-13
ment; or 14
(B) does not respond to the minor range 15
improvement. 16
(b) R
ANGEIMPROVEMENTS BY THE SECRETARY.— 17
The Secretary, acting through the applicable District 18
Ranger, shall— 19
(1) respond to a covered request not later than 20
30 days after the date on which such request is sub-21
mitted; and 22
(2) if such response confirms that the Sec-23
retary, acting through the applicable District Rang-24
er, will carry out the range improvement re-25
quested— 26
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(A) notify the district office that serves the 1
area in which such range improvement will 2
occur; and 3
(B) expedite the carrying out of such 4
range improvement using any available adminis-5
trative tools or authorities, including categorical 6
exclusions. 7
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) CFR
TERMS.—The terms ‘‘grazing permit’’, 9
‘‘permittee’’, and ‘‘range improvement’’ have the 10
meanings given those terms, respectively, in section 11
222.1 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations (or 12
successor regulations). 13
(2) C
OVERED REQUEST .—The term ‘‘covered 14
request’’ means a request submitted by a permittee 15
to the Secretary requesting that the Secretary carry 16
out a range improvement. 17
(3) M
INOR RANGE IMPROVEMENT .—The term 18
‘‘minor range improvement’’ includes improvements 19
to existing fences and fence lines, wells, water pipe-20
lines, and stock tanks. 21
(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 22
the Secretary of Agriculture. 23
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SEC. 3. MINOR RANGE IMPROVEMENTS UNDER BLM GRAZ-1
ING PERMITS. 2
(a) M
INORRANGEIMPROVEMENTS BY GRAZING 3
P
ERMITHOLDERS.—Not later than 1 year after the date 4
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue reg-5
ulations allowing a grazing permit or lease holder to carry 6
out a minor range improvement on the lands with respect 7
to which the grazing permit or lease applies if— 8
(1) the grazing permit or lease holder notifies 9
the applicable Bureau of Land Management district 10
or field manager at least 30 days prior to carrying 11
out such minor range improvement; and 12
(2) such applicable district or field manager— 13
(A) approves the minor range improve-14
ment; or 15
(B) does not respond to the minor range 16
improvement. 17
(b) R
ANGEIMPROVEMENTS BY THE SECRETARY.— 18
The Secretary, acting through the applicable State Direc-19
tor of the Bureau of Land Management, shall— 20
(1) respond to a covered request not later than 21
30 days after the date on which such request is sub-22
mitted; and 23
(2) if such response confirms that the Sec-24
retary, acting through the applicable State Director 25
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of the Bureau of Land Management, will carry out 1
the range improvement requested— 2
(A) notify the State office that serves the 3
area in which such range improvement will 4
occur; and 5
(B) expedite the carrying out of such 6
range improvement using any available adminis-7
trative tools or authorities, including categorical 8
exclusions. 9
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) C
OVERED REQUEST .—The term ‘‘covered 11
request’’ means a request submitted by a grazing 12
permit holder to the Secretary requesting that the 13
Secretary carry out a range improvement. 14
(2) G
RAZING PERMIT OR LEASE .—The term 15
‘‘grazing permit or lease’’ means a grazing permit or 16
lease described in section 4130.2 of title 43, Code of 17
Federal Regulations (or success regulations). 18
(3) M
INOR RANGE IMPROVEMENT .—The term 19
‘‘minor range improvement’’ includes improvements 20
to existing fences and fence lines, wells, water pipe-21
lines, and stock tanks. 22
(4) R
ANGE IMPROVEMENT .—The term ‘‘range 23
improvement’’ means a range improvement carried 24
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out pursuant to subpart 4120 of title 43, Code of 1
Federal Regulations (or successor regulations). 2
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 3
the Secretary of the Interior. 4
Æ
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