An omnibus wilderness bill has narrowly failed in the U.S. House. S. 22, was sponsored in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico’s senior senator.

The bill, because it was brought up with special rules that did not allow most amendments, required two-thirds of the votes in the House, 284, to pass. The bill failed 282-144, despite an amendment added after urging by the National Rifle Association that said the bill would not impose new restrictions on hunting, fishing or trapping on public lands.

The bill passed the Senate in January and would have permanently protected over 2 million acres of public lands as wilderness, including the 20,000-acre Sabinoso Wilderness Area in New Mexico. The creation of that area was sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall when he was still in the House.

New Mexico Reps. Martin Heinrich, Ben Ray Luján and Harry Teague, all Democrats, voted for the bill. Three Democrats, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Jim Marshall of Georgia and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted against the bill. The 248 Democrats voting for the bill were joined by 34 Republicans.

The Associated Press reported that opponents objected to the use of rules that blocked most amendments.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., called the Democratic rules “an extreme abuse of the process.” He said the bill — a collection of more over 170 individual bills — was “a 1,200-page monster piece of legislation” that could criminalize collecting rocks on federal land, among other problems.

Democrats disputed that and said the bill was among the most important conservation measures debated in the House in many years.