Perhaps the worst of the crop of “wilderness with side payment” bills is dead, although this one is a more straight forward development and privatization bill with a thin veneer of wilderness.
I won’t give the details because they have been hashed out earlier in this blog.
US House blocks Washington County [Utah] lands bill. By Robert Gehrke. Salt Lake Tribune.
. . . and the next day, reaction. Local leaders react to shelved bills. By Scott David Johnson. The Spectrum. This is reaction to the failed land bill, and the recognition that it needed some element of real protection in it. The rest of the article is about the failure of Utah to get a 4th House seat, a deal which would give the District of Columbia a seat too, temporarily raising the size of the House of Representatives from 435 to 457.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.
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