House to vote on slew of controversial sportsmen's, ORV, grazing bills

E&E News
By Phil Taylor
February 3, 2014

House this week is expected to take up a plethora of public lands measures that would benefit off-highway vehicle riders, loggers and ranchers, setting up a battle royal with Democrats.

The Rules Committee today and tomorrow will meet to set the parameters for floor debate on two major packages of sportsmen's and public lands bills.

This afternoon's hearing features H.R. 3590 by Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), and tomorrow afternoon will feature H.R. 2954, a package of mostly Republican measures.

While both packages are expected to pass the House later this week, they're likely to garner significant opposition from Democrats who have argued they would roll back protections for wilderness and endangered wildlife while greatly curtailing the government's environmental oversight.

Although many measures in Latta's sportsmen's package enjoy broad support among Democrats and Republicans, there are a couple of major caveats.

The package of eight bills would promote hunting and angling access to federal lands, ban U.S. EPA from regulating lead ammunition and fishing tackle, promote the construction of shooting ranges on public lands, permanently authorize the online sale of duck stamps, and promote the right to bear arms on Army Corps property, among other provisions (E&E Daily, Jan. 30).

But a few provisions loosening wilderness and National Environmental Policy Act protections have stuck in Democrats' craws.

Language in Latta's bill by Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.) seeks to promote wildlife habitat improvements in designated wilderness areas and to make it harder for anti-hunting groups to challenge decisions expanding hunting opportunities on public lands.

But backcountry advocates warn the language weakens the Wilderness Act and NEPA and could lead to unintended consequences. It's also riled some backcountry hunters (Greenwire, May 30, 2013).

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is expected to propose an amendment to that portion of the bill.

There will likely also be debate over whether Congress should bar EPA from regulating lead ammo, which many environmental groups blame for harming birds -- there's compelling evidence it is harming endangered California condors, for example -- and threatening humans who consume meat killed with lead bullets. A sizable number of prominent Democrats have taken their side.

Proponents of traditional ammunition say that lead is not causing population impacts in birds and that requiring nonlead alternatives would raise the cost of hunting. Some say regulation should stay with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already banned hunting waterfowl with lead shot.

Those provisions -- wilderness and lead bullets -- will make for an uphill struggle in the Democratic-controlled Senate, as they have in the past.

The other lands package, titled "The Public Access and Lands Improvement Act," is likely to generate hotter debate.

It includes controversial measures to fast-track logging in areas burned by the Rim Fire in Northern California (E&E Daily, Oct. 4, 2013); to restore vehicular access to a North Carolina national seashore (E&E Daily, March 15, 2013); to shorten environmental reviews for grazing permits (E&E Daily, April 19, 2013); and to temporarily halt land acquisition at the Bureau of Land Management (Greenwire, Jan. 27).

Republicans authored all but one of the package's 10 bills.

Much of the debate will likely center on a bill by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) to suspend all federal environmental laws so agencies can quickly log trees damaged by California's Rim Fire. McClintock last fall argued the bill would allow the harvest of up to a billion board feet of timber charred as a result of the 257,000-acre fire that swept through the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park late last summer.

It would also provide much-needed jobs and revenue to fund forest reseeding and restoration efforts while preventing the encroachment of brush and fallen logs that could set the stage for future catastrophic blazes, he argued.

But Democrats and many scientists say lifting environmental laws like NEPA and the Endangered Species Act is an overreach. Also, burned forests offer superb habitat for insects, birds and deer, and those ecosystems are rare in the nation's forests and should be left alone, they argue.

Two titles in the package -- Rep. Walter Jones' (R-N.C.) bill to restore vehicular access at North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Rep. Raul Labrador's (R-Idaho) bill to accelerate grazing permits -- have companion measures that have reached the Senate floor.

But the Senate proposals by Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) were significantly amended following negotiations with committee Democrats to alleviate concerns over endangered shorebirds and NEPA exemptions.

It remains to be seen whether sponsors of the House measures -- and chamber leaders -- will accede to those changes.

Another measure in the House lands package by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) seeks to expand nonmotorized boating options in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, though it is strongly opposed by parks advocates.

The package also includes a measure by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) to halt BLM's land purchases until it publicizes online the parcels it has identified as appropriate for disposal.

The Democratic measure is by Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington. It would exempt the Forest Service from the Wilderness Act in order to preserve a mountain lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness in DelBene's home state.

Wilderness advocates are split over the issue (Greenwire, July 26, 2013).

Schedule: The sportsmen's package hearing is Monday, Feb. 3, at 5 p.m. in H-313, the Capitol.

Witnesses: TBA.

Schedule: The lands package hearing is Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 3 p.m. in H-313, the Capitol.

Witnesses: TBA.