Wyoming Politics
TIME TO START OVER WITH SENSIBLE FEE POLICY
Baucus, Crapo Re-introduce Bill to Repeal the RAT
(Updaed 11 a.m. April 24, at end of article)
Tomorrow, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) will take another swing at the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA)--or Recreation Access Tax (RAT) to its detractors--by re-introducing their bill to repeal the law and start over with a sensible fee policy. The bill is identical to the bill that died last year at the end of the 110th Congress.
"Every tax day we pay to use our public lands, we shouldn’t be taxed twice to go fishing, hiking, or camping on OUR public lands, Baucus told NewWest.Net today. "Paying twice just doesn’t make any sense. That’s why I’m going to fight to get this bill passed."
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IDAHO'S FIRST WILDERNESS SINCE 1980
Crapo, Conservationists Laud Passage of Public Lands Bill
UPDATED 6 pm, March 30. President Barack Obama signed the public lands bill today. George Cooper, President and CEO of the Theordore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, attended the White House signing ceremony and invoked the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt in assessing the president’s actions. “Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.' With today’s events, Roosevelt’s words take on a new and deeper meaning. Ratification of this historic measure represents an important victory for sportsmen, as well as for our natural resources and activities that rely on our nation’s public lands."
After years of compromise, delay, failed votes, parliamentary games, all frequently sprinkled with vitriol from detractors, but countered with the hard work by many thousands of supporters, Congress has, finally, passed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill. The 1,300-page behemoth is actually a compilation of around 170 pieces of legislation, including Idaho's first wilderness in 29 years, protection for the Wyoming Range, and wilderness and wild river designations in nine states, not including Montana.
The Senate passed the massive bill, again (click here to read about it), last week. Yesterday, the House voted 285-140 to pass the same bill. Since the House passed an exact copy of the Senate-passed bill, it won't be stalled in a conference committee and subject to re-votes. Instead, it goes directly to the White House where everybody involved expects President Obama to sign it, probably next week.
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IT'S BECOME A REAL BATTLEFIELD BILL
House Votes on Public Lands Bill Today
THIRD UPDATE: March 25, 12:15 PM. The House voted 283-140 to pass public lands bill with 136 Republicans and 4 Democrats voting "nay." This would have been enough to pass for a super-majority, two-thirds vote.
SECOND UPDATE, March 25, 9:15 am.
UPDATED March 19, 11 a.m. at end of article.
Anybody interested in protecting public land knows about S.22, a massive piece of legislation, a compilation of 190 bills that Congress has been working on for years. Six days ago, it unexpectedly failed (click here), unable to get a super majority in the U.S. House of Representatives by a mere two votes, 282-144, even though the Senate had passed it 73-21.
That bad beat made political insiders scratch their heads. Why would the House leadership bring S. 22 up for a vote under suspension of rules, which requires a two-thirds majority, without the votes to pass it?
I've been calling around on to get the answer to that question and to find out what might happen next. Here's the skinny on the House vote and alas, how President Obama will have the opportunity to sign this bill into law as early as next week. You could call it "revolutionary" politics.
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THIS JUST IN
House Votes Down Public Lands Bill
UPDATED at 12:55 pm. Update at end of article.
In a surprise vote this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to pass a landmark public lands protection bill that would have ensured access and opportunity for hunters and anglers today and for generations to come.
That news just in courtesy of Trout Unlimited, one of the main backers of the massive bill that the U.S. Senate has already passed.
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NOTHING THERE BUT POLITICAL DOWNSIDE
Obama, Get Real on “Assault Weapons,” Put a Cork in Holder
I went to my first gun show a couple of weeks ago, but when I wrote about it, I left out the buzz concerning the proposed reauthorization of the so-called "Assault Weapon Ban (AWB)." I have a lot to say about it, so I saved it for this column.
For starters, with all the massive messes the Obama administration has to unravel, why is our new president allowing his attorney general to embark on a meaningless mission to nowhere? And in conflict with his campaign commitments and his party's plans to stay in power?
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PROTECTS ALL ROADLESS LAND, CREATES 2,300 JOBS
Northern Rockies Wilderness Bill Back in Congress
UPDATE: One of the points of criticism of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) is confusion over what lands are really covered by the massive proposal. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the main architects and ball carriers of NREPA, has addressed that point by posting a detailed list of roadless lands affected by the bill. It's organized by national forest, so you can easily check roadless lands near you. If you have questions or concerns, click here to review the list.
Undaunted by many years of failure, backers of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) have had it introduced once more into the 111th Congress.
And once more, the massive legislation is being billed as a jobs program, which should get more traction in the face of the current economic meltdown and rapidly rising unemployment.
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POLITICS CREATES THE STRANGEST BEDFELLOWS
Oops, the NRA Agrees With Obama
Editor's Note: I posted my weekly column (Are Bison Wildlife or Livestock?) early this week, but I couldn't help filling up my normal Thursday slot with this little political irony for all my gun nutty friends.--Bill Schneider
Politics can be frustrating and maddening, but it can also be interesting and ironical.
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Federal Agencies: Interior
President Obama Halts Wolf Delisting
President Barack Obama has issued a freeze on publication of federal regulations planned under the previous administration but not yet published in the Federal Register. This action, which will give the new administration a chance to review Bush-era policy decisions, will delay and possibly prevent the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list in Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and portions of Washington, Oregon, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
According to Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, the pause will afford President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar the opportunity to rethink the previous administration’s efforts to remove wolves from the endangered species list. “Rather than remove protections from wolves in a piecemeal fashion, in the isolated locations where they have finally begun to recover from past persecution,” Robinson said, “ the Obama administration should develop and implement a national gray-wolf recovery plan that will ensure the survival of these magnificent animals.”
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Church and State
Managing Mormonism on the Mormon Trail
Among the most sacred Mormon sites anywhere is Martin's Cove, a broad niche in the Sweetwater Rocks near Devil’s Gate in central Wyoming, where a sage-covered sand dune laps up into the granite slopes and boulders.
The wind blows most of the time. The rocks offer some shelter, and that's why hundreds of converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pulled up into the cove early in November 1856. They had pulled disintegrating handcarts 900 miles from Iowa City, yet still were 350 miles from the Salt Lake Valley. There had been a blizzard. They were starving and freezing, and many died at the cove. Many, many more died that month, all along the trail.
Mormon storytelling in later generations, however, concentrated on the dying at the cove. That storytelling, as much as the actual events of 1856, made this land holy.
So it's not surprising that the LDS Church seized an opportunity in the late 1990s to acquire the historic Sun Ranch at Devil's Gate, remodel the old ranch house into a museum and visitors' center, and make the land a shrine to a Mormon story. The visitor's center now draws 70,000 people per year.
Nor is it surprising that a Republican Mormon congressman from Utah led an effort five years later to sell nearby U.S. government land -- the holiest land, right at Martin's Cove -- to the LDS church.
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AN EASY, QUICK WAY FOR OBAMA TO KEEP HIS PROMISE
Let National Park Gun Rule Stand
In early December President Bush kept his promise and came through for gun owners who supported him by loosening rules allowing loaded, concealed guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.
Now, President-elect Obama needs to keep his promise and come through for gun owners who supported him by allowing this rule to stand as currently written.
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