To provide that the final rule titled “Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation” and issued on January 12, 2001 (66 Fed. Reg. 3244) shall have no force or effect and require the Secretary of Agriculture to construct certain roads on National Forest System lands, and for other purposes.
Key claim: HR7695 would strip the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule of legal force and require the Secretary of Agriculture to construct certain roads on National Forest System lands.
Abstract
(HR7695 · 119th Congress) Latest action (2026-05-21): Subcommittee Hearings Held
Why this matters
The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects roughly 58.5 million acres of National Forest System land from most road construction and timber harvest; legislatively voiding it and mandating certain new roads would materially change access for timber operators, ranchers, and recreation users, with downstream effects on rural forest-economy jobs and on watershed, wildfire, and habitat conditions that shape agricultural and water-supply outcomes. The bill also illustrates a legislative rather than rulemaking pathway for reversing a longstanding USDA regulation, bypassing Forest Service notice-and-comment and directive processes.