U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D) is celebrating successful efforts to block Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness mining permissions in President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."
Smith successfully fought to remove a provision from the bill that would have allowed a Chilean-owned company to build a mine near the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.
Smith said that "buried deep in President Trump and Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill," was a provision that gave a foreign mining company full permission to build a copper-nickel sulfide mine right near the Boundary Waters which opponents said created significant risk for the pristine wilderness area.
"Today marks a victory in our fight to protect the Boundary Waters," Smith said in a statement. "I vowed to do everything in my power to protect this precious place. Today, I am relieved to announce that we were successful in forcing Republicans to drop this language attacking the Boundary Waters from the bill."
The move avoids a potential return to mining in the region, which opponents argued would pollute over 1,200 lakes and mobilize harmful mercury. Advocates for more mining in the area were touting the hundreds of new jobs a mining facility could create.
While House Republicans previously passed a version of the bill including the mining provision, the fight now moves to the Senate, which is currently making changes before an upcoming vote.
Smith does say that the fight to protect the BWCA-area isn't over, however.
"Donald Trump and House Republicans are determined to revoke the protections I worked to put in place and that Minnesotans have made clear they support," Smith adds. "Republicans want to sell off our public lands to the highest bidder, and the Boundary Waters is no exception."
In March, President Trump signed an executive order vowing to "increase American mineral production."
"The United States was once the world’s largest producer of lucrative minerals, but overbearing Federal regulation has eroded our Nation’s mineral production," the White House said at the time. "Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers’ mineral production. It is imperative for our national security that the United States take immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent."
To generate revenue, one section of the "Big Beaufiful Bill" would have allowed increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining and logging while clearing the path for more development by speeding up government approvals.
Royalty rates paid by companies to extract oil, gas and coal would be cut, reversing Biden’s attempts to curb fossil fuels to help address climate change.
In a last-minute add, Republicans also included a provision authorizing sales of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmentalists. Those provisions have now been removed.