House Republicans Add Land Sales To Anti-Conservation Budget Bill
The committee passed the 11th-hour change after spending a full day batting away Democratic attempts to blunt the GOP’s unprecedented attack on public land protections.
Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources moved to dispose of thousands of acres of federal land in Nevada and Utah late Tuesday, as part of a sweeping budget bill to boost energy and mineral extraction, while dismantling public land protections.
At around 11 p.m., 13 hours into a markup hearing, Reps. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) and Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) introduced a 33-page amendment to sell off thousands acres of federal public lands in their states, which they argued is necessary for housing and other economic development.
“The disposal of this land would allow for more responsible development while giving a positive return to the American taxpayer,” Amodei said.
The changes would require the Interior Department to identify and sell lands from broad swaths of federal holdings in the counties that include or border the cities of Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City and the 25,000-person town of Fernley in Nevada.
Amodei and Maloy’s amendment also mandates the sale of Forest Service land in Washoe County, which contains Reno at its southern end and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge at its north, and allow sales and land swaps for “checkboarded” parcels of alternating private and federal public holdings in Pershing County in northwest Nevada.
Read the amendment below.
The amendment gives the Interior Department 180 days to transfer 70 specific public land parcels in Beaver and Washington Counties and the town of St. George to county and city governments in southwest Utah. The amendment affects nearly 11,500 acres in Utah, with parcels ranging in range in size from less than one acre to nearly 3,200 acres.
The last-minute amendment infuriated Democrats on the committee, who introduced more than 100 amendments that the Republican majority voted down with little explanation or debate. Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, called the land sale amendment “truly odious sausage at 11:20 p.m. at the end of a long markup.”
“This doesn’t pass the straight face test,” Huffman said. “Any member of Congress that votes for this is just surrendering any semblance of good process. The integrity of the legislative process is dead if you do this to what is already a dismal piece of legislation.”
The committee advanced the budget draft by a 26-17 vote. It now heads to the full House for consideration.
Chase Huntley, vice president of federal policy at The Wilderness Society, called the vote “a very dark night for the American people.”
“Republicans on this committee spent nearly all of Wednesday with their mouths shut, playing games with the legislative process and avoiding debate on substantive concerns,” he said in a statement. “Then tonight, when they thought nobody was watching, they offered a provision to sell off public lands, an idea that has continually proven wildly unpopular.”
The House Natural Resources Committee’s draft budget mandates a slew of new lease sales for oil and gas projects, coal mining and mineral drilling, while broadly reducing royalties that private companies pay for the privilege of extracting wealth from public land.
The budget bill would simultaneously weaken public land protections and walk back the environmental review process. The bill contains unique provisions that bar critics from challenging the changes in federal court.