On January 22, the NAM filed an amicus brief in an appeal to the 9th Circuit challenging a lower court finding that an Idaho land exchange between a manufacturer and the federal government violated federal law. In this case, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation v. DOI, Simplot acquired federal land from the Bureau of Land Management in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to build new gypstacks containing waste products from fertilizer in exchange for Simplot land. Nevertheless, the trial court agreed with a local tribe that the exchange was precluded by a 1900 law that restricted the potential uses of exchanged federal land.
We argue in our brief that the exchange is authorized by both the 1900 Act and FLPMA. FLPMA is a comprehensive land management statute that must be read to allow for all federal land dispositions to satisfy business expectations and foster resource development on public lands in the United States, which are crucial to supply chain and energy security for American manufacturing.