Congress moves to give away national lands, discounting billions in revenue

[CousinIT]

In the midst of highly publicized steps to dismantle insurance coverage for 32 million people and defund women’s healthcare facilities, Republican lawmakers have quietly laid the foundation to give away Americans’ birthright: 640m acres of national land. In a single line of changes to the rules for the House of Representatives, Republicans have overwritten the value of federal lands, easing the path to disposing of federal property even if doing so loses money for the government and provides no demonstrable compensation to American citizens.

At stake are areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forests and Federal Wildlife Refuges, which contribute to an estimated $646bn each year in economic stimulus from recreation on federal lands and 6.1m jobs. Transferring these lands to the states, critics fear, could decimate those numbers by eliminating mixed-use requirements, limiting public access and turning over large portions for energy or property development.

According to the Outdoor Alliance, US public land is the government’s second largest source of income after taxes. In addition to economic stimulus in outdoor activities, federal land also creates revenue through oil and gas production, logging and other industrial uses. According to the BLM, in 2016, it made $2bn in royalty revenue from federal leases.

Ignoring those figures, the new language for the House budget, authored by Utah Republican representative Rob Bishop, who has a history of fighting to transfer public land to the states, says that federal land is effectively worthless. Transferring public land to “state, local government or tribal entity shall not be considered as providing new budget authority, decreasing revenues, increasing mandatory spending or increasing outlays.”

THE FUCKING CORPRATS WANT OUR FEDERAL LAND SO THEY CAN DRILL, MINE, FRACK, AND DEVELOP IT FOR ***THEIR** PROFIT, WHILE TAKING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AWAY FROM OUR GOVERNMENT AND TAKING OUR NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES, AND PARKS AWAY FROM US.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/bureau-land-management-federal-lease

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1. I called my congressman about this.

I think he deliberately employs clueless aids to answer the phone. This is one in a series of nefarious things that HR5 will bring to us. Congressman Roskum's ( R-IL) lackey lied to me and said the good man did not vote for this.

[mindem]

2. God, I hate these bastards.

They are bound and determined to punish the American people and turn this country into a shithole for the sake of a handful of gazillionaires. Unfortunately, I don't trust that our democrats are going to fight the good fight.