Post by pistonschick on Mar 14, 2009 22:53:36 GMT -8
! ! ! Wilderness Bill Defeated ! ! !
This is a WIN for the motorized recreation community...
A popular but star-crossed public lands bill that would have extended additional protections to 200,000 acres in Oregon and millions more nationwide was defeated in the House last Wednesday by a mere two votes.
The measure earned a lopsided 282-144 vote but failed nonetheless because it did meet the required two-thirds majority. Under House rules, the bill needed 284 affirmative votes to pass based on the total number of lawmakers voting.
The defeat was a bitter setback to supporters who labored for years and felt confident of victory after the Senate passed the bill in January. In the past, it was the Senate that stopped the legislation. All five House members from Oregon voted for the bill.
Majority Democrats even agreed to amend the bill to clarify that it wouldn't impose new restrictions on hunting, fishing or trapping on federal land. The amendment was sought by the National Rifle Association.
By allowing the change Democrats underscored the importance of a bill that many called the most significant public lands measure in a generation.
The sprawling legislation was actually 164 separate bills bundled together, designating more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states. It would have created three national parks, more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers --including about 90 miles in Oregon --and three national conservation areas.
It also would have enlarged the size of a dozen national parks and addresses water supply problems in California.
The bill also would have had a large and lasting impact on Oregon.
For Oregon, the bill would have:
• Preserved almost 127,000 acres around Mount Hood with wilderness protection and added almost 80 miles on nine free-flowing stretches of rivers to the wild and scenic river system.
• Designated 9.3 miles of rivers at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Elk River as wild and scenic and add 13,700 acres of new wilderness adjacent to the existing Grassy Knob Wilderness.
• Designated as wilderness almost 30,000 acres in an area 15 miles east of Bend.
• Established a 23,000-acre wilderness area, to be known as the Soda Mountain Wilderness, in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument's southern back country.
• Designated about 8,600 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land as the Spring Basin Wilderness, overlooking a wild and scenic stretch of the John Day River.
House debate on the bill turned contentious, as Republicans complained that the measure -- one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in 25 years -- would cost up to $10 billion and block oil and gas development on millions of acres of federal property.
They also said it should not have been brought up under special rules that blocked most amendments and required two-thirds support for passage. Such rules are usually reserved for non-controversial bills.
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.
When headlines read that banks are failing, it's important for Americans to know that "our national parks are still beautiful, our national battlefields are still sacred and our national rivers are still wild and scenic," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.
The defeated measure would have conferred the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range to Oregon's Mount Hood, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.
Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also would have won designation as wilderness, and more than 1,000 miles of rivers in nearly a dozen states would have gained protections.
The bill also would let Alaska construct the road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a land swap that would give the state a seven-mile easement through the refuge. In exchange, the state was expected to transfer more than 1,000 acres to the federal government, much of it designated as wilderness.
This is a WIN for the motorized recreation community...
A popular but star-crossed public lands bill that would have extended additional protections to 200,000 acres in Oregon and millions more nationwide was defeated in the House last Wednesday by a mere two votes.
The measure earned a lopsided 282-144 vote but failed nonetheless because it did meet the required two-thirds majority. Under House rules, the bill needed 284 affirmative votes to pass based on the total number of lawmakers voting.
The defeat was a bitter setback to supporters who labored for years and felt confident of victory after the Senate passed the bill in January. In the past, it was the Senate that stopped the legislation. All five House members from Oregon voted for the bill.
Majority Democrats even agreed to amend the bill to clarify that it wouldn't impose new restrictions on hunting, fishing or trapping on federal land. The amendment was sought by the National Rifle Association.
By allowing the change Democrats underscored the importance of a bill that many called the most significant public lands measure in a generation.
The sprawling legislation was actually 164 separate bills bundled together, designating more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states. It would have created three national parks, more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers --including about 90 miles in Oregon --and three national conservation areas.
It also would have enlarged the size of a dozen national parks and addresses water supply problems in California.
The bill also would have had a large and lasting impact on Oregon.
For Oregon, the bill would have:
• Preserved almost 127,000 acres around Mount Hood with wilderness protection and added almost 80 miles on nine free-flowing stretches of rivers to the wild and scenic river system.
• Designated 9.3 miles of rivers at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Elk River as wild and scenic and add 13,700 acres of new wilderness adjacent to the existing Grassy Knob Wilderness.
• Designated as wilderness almost 30,000 acres in an area 15 miles east of Bend.
• Established a 23,000-acre wilderness area, to be known as the Soda Mountain Wilderness, in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument's southern back country.
• Designated about 8,600 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land as the Spring Basin Wilderness, overlooking a wild and scenic stretch of the John Day River.
House debate on the bill turned contentious, as Republicans complained that the measure -- one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in 25 years -- would cost up to $10 billion and block oil and gas development on millions of acres of federal property.
They also said it should not have been brought up under special rules that blocked most amendments and required two-thirds support for passage. Such rules are usually reserved for non-controversial bills.
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.
When headlines read that banks are failing, it's important for Americans to know that "our national parks are still beautiful, our national battlefields are still sacred and our national rivers are still wild and scenic," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.
The defeated measure would have conferred the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range to Oregon's Mount Hood, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.
Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also would have won designation as wilderness, and more than 1,000 miles of rivers in nearly a dozen states would have gained protections.
The bill also would let Alaska construct the road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a land swap that would give the state a seven-mile easement through the refuge. In exchange, the state was expected to transfer more than 1,000 acres to the federal government, much of it designated as wilderness.