Republicans introduce measure to make it easier to give away federal lands for free
Whatever you might say about the new Republican-controlled Congress, you can't say they don't wear their priorities on their sleeves. Their very first act was an attempt to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then, in the wake of Democrats publicly shaming them on the House floor for their inaction on gun violence, they instituted a new rule barring members from taking photos. And a third Day One Republican provision?
Selling America's public lands on the cheap.
Under current Congressional Budget Office accounting rules, any transfer of federal land that generates revenue for the U.S. Treasury — whether through energy extraction, logging, grazing or other activities — has a cost. If lawmakers wanted to give land generating receipts to a given state, local government or tribe, they would have to account for that loss in expected cash flow. If the federal government conveys land where there is no economic activity, such as wilderness, there is no estimated cost associated with it.
The new Republican provision simply ends that. Now if the Republican Party wants to sell, say, all of the federally-owned land in Utah to the state (so that the state could pass it all along to whichever mining companies gave the biggest political donations), the new rule forbids the office from pointing out how much revenue the United States will lose from doing it. It is, literally, a giveaway.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to fellow Democrats urging them to oppose the rules package on the basis of that proposal.
“The House Republican plan to give away America’s public lands for free is outrageous and absurd,” Grijalva said in a statement. “This proposed rule change would make it easier to implement this plan by allowing the Congress to give away every single piece of property we own, for free, and pretend we have lost nothing of any value. Not only is this fiscally irresponsible, but it is also a flagrant attack on places and resources valued and beloved by the American people.”
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/4/1616768/-Republicans-introduce-measure-to-make-it-easier-to-give-away-federal-lands-for-free
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