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Public Lands News from the House | ![]() |
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Greetings!
Happy New Year!
In the House, the Democrats have renamed the
former
Resources Committee the Natural
Resources
Committee. The new chairman, Rep. Nick Rahall
(D-WV) has promised to protect the integrity of our
environmental laws and public lands.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) is now chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, the subcommittee under the Natural Resources Committee that oversees all legislation involving public lands. Any hearings for land exchange or conveyance legislation will occur in Grijalva’s subcommittee before going to Rahall’s full committee for amendments or debate.
In the February 6 issue of Environment &
Energy
Daily Rep. Grijalva said:
We are hopeful that this new philosophy will lead
to
better proposals for public lands. In almost ten years
of monitoring legislated land trades and giveaways,
Western Lands has observed that the bills that go
through these committees are more often than not
slammed through without scrutiny, and that members
from both parties see these deals as having little
consequence. Grijalva says he does not expect to
preemptively sign off on bills such as small land
exchanges involving federal property, but will give
them the scrutiny they deserve:
If you’d like to see what is happening now in the House Natural Resources Committee and its subcommittees, visit http:// resourcescommittee.house.gov/. Of course, you are always welcome to contact us for information regarding legislation the Western Lands Project is monitoring. Next week: Changes for public land in the Senate. Yours, Joanne, Janine and Chris
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email:
e-news@westernlands.org
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