After previous successful trips to Washington, DC with off-road leaders, ORBA President Roy Denner recruited representatives from non-OHV western desert stakeholder groups to participate in another sojourn to DC. Denner had pointed out previously to high-level federal government officials that the off-road community is not the only public land interest group that has problems with how the federal agencies are managing public lands in the western states. Representatives from other interest groups were anxious to be heard.

Accompanying Denner on the trip were representatives of cattle ranchers, mining interests, the filming industry, local government (an elected member of a county Board of Supervisors), the construction industry, aviation, and legal counsel. A major concern of every member of the group is the fact that the BLM is developing management plans for the western desert that are far too complex to ever be implemented. Furthermore, there is no money in the federal budget to implement the plans. To make matters worse, these plans were all developed around a recovery plan for the Desert Tortoise that, by its own text, is flawed and outdated.

The desert interest group met with Assistant Secretary of the Interior Craig Manson, who is in charge of Fish & Wildlife and Parks. They also expressed their concerns to staff from Kathleen Clarke's office. Ms. Clarke is the National Director for the Bureau of Land Management. They visited 17 Congressional offices and were particularly well received by Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Richard Pombo. Hunter was recently appointed head of the Armed Services Committee and Pombo is now head of the Resources Committee. Congressman Pombo was conducting hearings regarding impacts to military readiness resulting from constraints to adequate training imposed by the Endangered Species Act. The Resources Committee voted to exempt the military from provisions of the ESA and other environmental laws to assure that the U.S. military remains the best trained force in the world.

When the group presented its issues to Congressman Pombo he was particularly upset. Congressman Pombo is the Chairman of the House Resources Committee. He is known for his efforts to reform the Endangered Species Act to make it less restrictive to multiple uses of public lands. In response to the request by ORBA's President, Congressman Pombo agreed to have his Resources Committee hold a Congressional Hearing in California to take testimony regarding access problems on Federal lands within the California Desert District. The Hearing took place in San Diego on August 18, 2003.