May 13, 2005


Land bill battle heats up
By SAMANTHA YOUNG
PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU


WASHINGTON - A bill that could pave the way for Congress to lay claim
to millions of dollars from federal land sales in Clark County
advanced on Tuesday.

The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that Nevada
leaders fear could open the door to a loss of $700 million a year the
government is required to spend in the state.

But as Congress grapples with looming deficits, a Bush administration
plan to tap Southern Nevada land profits is proving attractive,
several lawmakers said.

"We're half a billion dollars in deficit. There's always an interest
in money anywhere," said Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. chairman of the
panel that sets annual spending for the Interior Department.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the panel's top Democrat, added "there's
always going to be an interest" in the fund because of the record
revenues generated by federal land sales in the Las Vegas Valley.

The bill that advanced Tuesday directs Interior Secretary Gale Norton
to send Congress a report on how the government has spent sales
profits generated from Southern Nevada land in 2003 and 2004.

"We will review it and then look at the amount of money that is
coming in versus what was intended or expected when it passed,"
Taylor said.

House aides said the bill could serve as a springboard for lawmakers
later this year to try to change the 1998 law that governs Southern
Nevada land sales.

Nevada lawmakers are bracing for a possible fight.

"We don't know what is going to come out of the study," said Amy
Spanbauer, chief of staff to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "The
congressman's hope is that it will show how beneficial it has been to
Nevada."

When it was enacted in 1998, Congress was told that excess Bureau of
Land Management property in Southern Nevada would fetch $70 million -
a fraction of the $2.2 billion that has been raised so far.

The Bush administration has proposed sending 70 percent of the annual
profits into the U.S. Treasury while continuing to spend 30 percent,
about $360 million next year, in Nevada. Prior to the Congress's plan
to claim a large percentage of the revenue, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.,
publicly urged Nye County officials to establish their own land bill
similar to Clary County's.

The Clark County matter was a small part of a $26.2 billion bill that
sets spending for the Interior Department, the U.S. Forest Service
and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In other areas, committee lawmakers chose not to renew a long-
standing ban on wild horse slaughter in deference to a new sale
program created in March.

Congress last year directed the BLM to sell all captured wild horses
that are more than 10 years old or those that have not fetched an
owner at three government run adoptions.

The government has sold about 1,000 horses, but at least 41 animals
have been resold and slaughtered at a meat packing plant in Illinois.

"It is disheartening that language protecting these American beauties
from senseless slaughter is missing from this spending bill," said
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who has sponsored a bill to repeal the
sales program.

The Interior bill also:

€ Boosts federal payments to counties that cannot collect taxes
on
federal land. The bill funds the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program at
$230 million, significantly higher than the $204 million the Bush
administration proposed. This would have a profoundly positive impact
on Nye County, which stands to lose millions based on the President's
proposal.

€ Reduces the Interior Department budget for land acquisition
from
$212 million to $43 million in 2006.

€ Increases funding for National Park Service operations by $70
million to reduce the maintenance backlog at the parks.





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