Omnibus Bill Passed...

[BruceB83]

Well everybody...looks like the slipped it through. When S. 22 failed, H.R. 146, known as the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Battlefield Acquisition Grant Program, was created and they inserted the language of S. 22 into it. H.R. 146 was passed yesterday.

Here's the link where I found out...

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=35955

This law just banned 2.1 MILLION acres of PUBLIC land from motorized vehicle usage.

:flamemad::flamemad::flamemad::soapbox::soapbox::soapbox::flamemad::flamemad::flamemad:

(Sorry if this was already posted...I didn't see it anywhere in the Land Use Forum...)

 

[x2elite]

We need a list of representatives who voted to pass this legislation so that we can make sure not to vote for them in the future.

 

[BruceB83]

House: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/111/house/1/votes/153/
Senate: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/111/senate/1/votes/106/

You can view by state which makes it easy.

Both my Georgia senators voted against it...my House rep voted against it as well. The representatives from Georgia voting for it is absolutely NO surprise what-so-ever. Two of the five vote the Democratic party line 100% of the time, another 99.3% and the other two in the mid-90s%. They are all a bunch of scumbags.

Among the 4 different regions in the US (South, Northeast, Midwest, and West), the South had the highest % of people voting against it compared to total votes in the region. The Northeast was the biggest supporter, as a matter of fact, not one single senator from the NE voted against it. You NE guys need to be writing some serious amounts of letters.

 

[x2elite]

I am from Arkansas and one out of our six reps voted against it. I won't be voting for any of them again.

 

[cal]

We all knew that it was going to pass, that wasn't really in question.

The question, is where to go next. I'm sure I'll get an update from the BRC soon enough, and post it up here.

 

[WB9YZU]

Thanks for the update Cal and Bruce!

We just don't have the political clout the Sierra Club & the WWF enjoy.

Bruce, the number of acres affected is way beyond 2.1 Million. One provision alone targeted 27 Million acres.

 

[cal]

We've got the numbers, but too many OHV peeps feel its someone elses problem, they won't even chip in money, less time and effort.

And the official number of acres, as reported by BRC and UFWDA, is 2.1 million.

 

[WB9YZU]

I must have read this wrong then:

The bill language says that the NLCS includes "Any area designated by Congress to be administered for conservation purposes, including. . . public land within the California Desert Conservation Area administered by BLM for conservation purposes."

According to BLM the NLCS contains 27 million acres, including 4.8 million acres of national monuments, 14 million areas of conservation areas, 1.4 million acres of "similar designations," 7.7 million acres of wilderness areas, 13.8 million acres of wilderness study areas, and one million acres of wild and scenic rivers.

 

[cal]

The key is PUBLIC LAND.

 

[WB9YZU]

My bad, I thought it said "Public Land".

Regardless, it's still a <> lot of land!
< Almost used a potty mouth adjective there >

I agree with your assessment of the "Someone else's problem" attitude.

I think it's also bad for us that no Non-Profit can take a public political stance, like make up a "hit list" of Representatives to boycot or influence. So, for example, the UFWDA can't say 'Senator Kohl of WI is pro S22, make sure you tell him he will loose your vote unless he votes "Nay" '. Or another example would be: 'In the US Sennate election, these are the candidates that support our cause ...'

I know of a number of Orgs that watch Washington, like the BRC, and the UFWDA, but I don't know of any that actively lobby like the Sierra Club and WWF seem to.

 

[cal]

Agreed.

Groups like the Sierra Club started off legitmetly doing very good things and built a reputation we could never have.

The fact that they have strayed from that goal into liberal left wing BS doesn't make the public light.


There is a group of Sierra Club kids that hang near a cluster of coffee shops a couple of blocks from my office, asking for petition signatures. They'll ask me 2-3 times a week, and I grill them before I'll sign (someday, they may have the right answers, and maybe I'll sign) - to date, never once has one of them understood they issue they petitioned for.

"Oh, we're trying to do good things. don't you love the earth?"