[House Report 115-1092]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session } { 115-1092
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RESTORING LOCAL INPUT AND ACCESS TO PUBLIC LANDS ACT OF 2018
_______
December 20, 2018.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on
the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted
the following
R E P O R T
together with
DISSENTING VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 6939]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 6939) to protect and ensure multiple use and
public access to public lands in Wyoming per the request of the
respective counties, and for other purposes, having considered
the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and
recommend that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 6939 is to protect and ensure multiple
use and public access to public lands in Wyoming per the
request of the respective counties.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
The Wilderness Act of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.)
established the National Wilderness Preservation System to
maintain some of America's wildest areas for the ``use and
enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave
them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as
wilderness.''\1\ The Act described wilderness lands as areas
``where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by
man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.''\2\
It required that the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior
review within 10 years most of the public lands under their
purview and evaluate ``primitive'' roadless areas greater than
5,000 acres in size for their wilderness character and prepare
suitability recommendations for the President to share with
Congress. Under the Act, Congress reserves the sole authority
to designate federal lands as wilderness. Generally, the
Wilderness Act prohibits commercial activities, motorized uses,
and the building of roads, structures and facilities in
designated wilderness areas. In general, even though they have
not been designated by Congress as part of the National
Wilderness Preservation System, lands identified as wilderness
study areas (WSAs) are managed as if they were wilderness.
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\1\16 U.S.C. 1131.
\2\Ibid.
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Pursuant to the Wilderness Act, the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) completed its wilderness inventories in
Wyoming in 1981\3\ and made wilderness suitability
recommendations in 1984\4\ and 1991.\5\ The Wyoming Wilderness
Act of 1984 designated wilderness on U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
parcels and released other areas from study. It also
established new WSAs on USFS-managed land.\6\ Currently, there
are more than 750,000 acres of federally-managed WSAs in
Wyoming. In Lincoln, Big Horn, and Sweetwater Counties alone,
there are more than 400,000 acres in 21 WSAs.\7\ Without
Congressional action, these areas will remain in limbo and will
be managed as de facto wilderness, despite agency
recommendations that many of the areas be released.
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\3\Bureau of Land Management. Wyoming Wilderness Study Areas: A
Final Inventory Report. 1981.
\4\Bureau of Land Management. Rock Springs District, Wyoming,
Wilderness Study Report. 1984.
\5\Bureau of Land Management. Wyoming Statewide Wilderness Study
Report: Wilderness Study Area Specific Recommendations. 1991.
\6\Public Law 98-550.
\7\One of the WSAs is managed by the U.S. Forest Service with the
remaining 20 managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
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H.R. 6939 intends to release all WSAs in Lincoln, Big Horn,
and Sweetwater Counties. If enacted, this bill would release
approximately 400,000 acres of BLM and USFS land for broader
multiple use, ensuring greater diversity of access to public
lands and a wider array of management options available to land
managers. This bill would also prohibit any future wilderness
designation in Wyoming, unless enacted by law. The bill also
directs that any BLM or USFS land in Wyoming inventoried as
``Land With Wilderness Characteristics'' or that was identified
as having wilderness characteristics will no longer be
inventoried or identified as such and shall be managed under
multiple use and sustained yield mandates. Finally, the bill
prohibits BLM and USFS from conducting any new wilderness
inventories or identifying land as having wilderness character
in Wyoming.
H.R. 6939 is supported by Lincoln, Big Horn, and Sweetwater
Counties. It also enjoys support from the following
organizations: Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Advocates for
Multiple Use of Public Lands, Wyoming Mining Association,
Petroleum Association of Wyoming, American Farm Bureau,
Sweetwater Snow Pokes Snowmobile and ATV Club, Wyoming State
Snowmobile Association, and Teton Freedom Riders.
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 6939 was introduced on September 27, 2018, by
Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY). The bill was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources and within the Committee to the
Subcommittee on Federal Lands. On November 15, 2018, the
Natural Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The
Subcommittee was discharged by unanimous consent. No amendments
were offered, and the bill was ordered favorably reported to
the House of Representatives by a roll call vote of 19 yeas and
11 nays as follows:
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.
COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII AND
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT
1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act.
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974, the Committee has requested but not received a cost
estimate for the bill from the Director of the Congressional
Budget Office.
2. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or
objective of this bill is to protect and ensure multiple use
and public access to public lands in Wyoming per the request of
the respective counties.
EARMARK STATEMENT
This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives.
COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5
Directed Rule Making. This bill does not contain any
directed rule makings.
Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was
not included in any report from the Government Accountability
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law
98-169) as relating to other programs.
PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
If enacted, this bill would make no changes to existing
law.
DISSENTING VIEWS
Despite its name, H.R. 6939 has little to do with restoring
access to public lands or listening to local input.
The bill would eliminate all Wilderness Study Areas (WSA)
in three Wyoming Counties--effectively rolling back protections
for nearly 400,000 acres of public land. A sober minded process
for releasing WSAs would typically follow a deliberate process
and release some lands to multiple-use management while
protecting those most worthy of wilderness designation;
however, this bill paints with a broad brush, removing all
study areas regardless of their worthiness for protection.
This is especially egregious as Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) surveys in the mid-eighties and early-nineties determined
that nearly half of the lands H.R. 6939 would release are
worthy of wilderness designation. While we understand the bill-
sponsor's frustration that Congress has failed to formalize
these protections, there is abundant and long-standing evidence
that these areas merit increased protection rather than release
from further study.
In addition to releasing the WSAs, H.R. 6939 removes
protections from approximately 3.3 million acres of US Forest
Land managed under the 2001 national roadless rule and an
additional 700,000 acres of BLM land managed to maintain
wilderness characteristics. The bill also restricts either
agency from future inventories to determine the wilderness and
conservation value of these lands, shifting all the land
covered by the bill to a management framework that would permit
oil and gas development, mining, commercial timber operations
and other potentially harmful activities. Taken together this
would turn back the clock on years of conservation success and
potentially decrease access for users like hunters, fishermen,
and outdoor enthusiasts, who rely on functional, unimpaired
ecosystems.
Furthermore, during the hurried effort to repeal these
protections, the bill's sponsor has done little to incorporate
local input. Only one of the three counties impacted had even a
semblance of a public engagement process, which culminated in a
hasty endorsement along a split, 3-2 vote. In this vote, the
Chairman of the County Board of Commissioner's voted against
the bill, noting in the press that this type of process
requires ``a lot of public comment to make it right.'' This
bill was clearly rushed through public comment: a haste
mirrored in its incorporation into a lame-duck markup without
receiving a hearing. That's just one of the reasons why
organizations representing public land users across Wyoming--
from a group of state legislators to prominent outfitters and
guides--oppose H.R. 6939.
While we recognize the important role Congress plays in
providing certainty for Federal lands management, this process
ought to involve significant public and agency input. We cannot
hastily undo decades worth of work and protection for
wilderness-quality lands simply because it is easy. There is a
deliberate process for handling Wilderness Study Areas and by
following it we can come to a consensus-based bill that meets
the needs of all stakeholders.
Raul M. Grijalva,
Ranking Member, Committee on
Natural Resources.
Grace F. Napolitano.
Alan Lowenthal.
[all]