Demos quash Bishop's public lands protest

WASHINGTON — The revolt was fun while it lasted. But Democrats finally quashed Wednesday what had been a temporarily successful GOP rebellion led largely by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, to protest the Obama administration's handling of public lands.

Bishop had held up for a week the House approval of a Democratic proposal to buy beach-front property in the Virgin Islands for a proposed national historical site — but do that before the National Park Service finishes a study on whether a park unit there is wise and how big it should be.

Bishop — chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus — cried foul about buying land before the study is completed.

As he told the House Wednesday, "We have a secretary of interior (Ken Salazar) who, every time we want to use federal lands to actually improve the lives of Americans or create jobs, will always yell that we have a process we have to do, we cannot commit a rush to judgment."

That includes such things as canceling oil and gas leases in Utah for more study, proposing more review for all such future leases and proposing restrictions on oil shale development for more study. If the administration could do all that, Bishop said, then it also should wait to finish its own studies on the Virgin Islands land sale before buying it.

When the Virgin Islands bill came up last week, it was expected to be non-controversial and pass easily until Bishop and a few allies protested. The bill achieved a 241-173 majority then, but that was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under fast-track rules.

Democrats were furious the bill was killed and retaliated by killing a GOP-sponsored bill to allow continuation of some water supply facilities in Idaho wilderness areas.

Both bills returned to the House on Wednesday under rules that would allow passage by a simple majority.

Democrats poked Republicans by passing a version of the Idaho bill sponsored by a Democrat instead of the original Republican version. And Republicans jabbed Democrats by blasting the Virgin Islands bill and the Interior Department in speeches, but that bill finally passed 240-175, anyway.

Bishop said the Virgin Islands bill is "symbolic of a deeper problem," that the federal government owns too much land, is seeking more, and is heavy-handed in its administration. "In my state of Utah, only 18 percent of the state is in private property. The governor of Utah controls 18 percent. The rest is under the heavy hand of the secretary of interior."

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, joined in the revolt with a House speech Wednesday, saying, "This bill is about priorities in the United States of America. We are $12 trillion in debt. We're spending $600 million a day just on interest on that debt. … We don't have the money to do this."

Chaffetz said that the National Park Service has a $9 billion maintenance and repair backlog on park units it already owns and should not be trying "to acquire at the cost of $40 million to $50 million property with funds that we don't have."

This story was reported from Salt Lake City.

e-mail: lee@desnews.com