Watching Government: Curbing the 'wild lands' order

April 25, 2011
The biggest headline as Congress, on the eve of its spring recess, passed a continuing budget resolution was that a federal government shutdown had been averted and the government would stay in business through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011.

Nick Snow
Washington Editor

The biggest headline as Congress, on the eve of its spring recess, passed a continuing budget resolution was that a federal government shutdown had been averted and the government would stay in business through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011.

But the latest continuing resolution (CR) also went beyond its predecessors and included changes to the fiscal 2009 budget under which the federal government had operated. The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, for example, wound up in slightly better shape, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich told reporters during an Apr. 12 briefing.

The US Bureau of Land Management also was affected. Congressional Republicans opposed to US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar's Dec. 23, 2010, order that BLM designate appropriate areas under its jurisdiction "wild lands" and manage them to protect their wilderness values limiting funding in the new CR to implement, administer, or enforce the order.

BLM declined to comment on the matter because it is still a live issue, a spokeswoman told OGJ on Apr. 15. Congressional Republicans from western states had plenty to say, however.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said the bill's provision limiting implementation of Salazar's wild lands order would keep the Interior from implementing a back-door attempt to create de facto national wilderness areas. The order would "potentially place millions of acres of land off-limits to public recreation, energy production, and other job-creating activities," he said on Apr. 14.

'Brazen land grab'

"Defunding the administration's brazen land grab is an important victory for the West," observed Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis (D-Wyo.). "Western communities were completely left in the dark when the administration overstepped its authority and placed severe limitations on public lands with this unwelcome initiative. I am pleased taxpayer money will be denied to this proposal which would have had serious repercussions for jobs and the western way of life."

US Senate Western Caucus Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) noted that the CR not only removed funding for the wild lands order's implementation, but also "permanently eliminates some of the president's most troublesome policy 'czars'—including his czar who was dedicated to cap and trade. By removing unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, we return more power back to the states."

Congressional Republicans also pointed out that passage of the new CR ended a budget debate that was the result of Democrats failing to successfully pass any fiscal 2011 federal appropriations. This was just the warm-up, however. The main event will begin when Congress starts to consider the Obama administration's fiscal 2012 budget requests, including those for DOI, BLM, and BOEMRE.

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