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First Congressional District of New Mexico
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ask.heather@mail.house.gov

In Washington DC
442 Cannon House
Office Building
Washington, DC
20515
202-225-6316 Phone
202-225-4975 Fax
In Albuquerque
20 First Plaza NW
Suite 603
Albuquerque, NM
87102
505-346-6781 Phone
505-346-6723 Fax

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Congresswoman Heather Wilson, First Congressional District of New Mexico


Postcard
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Preserving the Baca Ranch May 23, 2000
 
Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we will try to pass the bill to purchase the Baca Ranch through the House Resources Committee, and we`ve been working hard to clear all of the hurdles and resolve all of the problems that always come up.

Sometimes, getting a bill like this through reminds me of that game you can play at Pistol Pete`s Pizza. You`ve got a big plastic hammer and every time you bonk one monster on the head and he disappears, another one pops out of a hole. Maybe herding cats is a better analogy.

At the moment, I think we`ve got all the cats heading in the right direction.

The funding to buy the ranch was included in the spending bills we passed last fall. But, we need to get the bill passed that will authorize the purchase, set up the Trust to manage the ranch and establish a system to sell surplus lands so that the federal government can buy in-holdings and have money in the "bank account" when opportunities like buying the Baca come up.

The bill is a unique approach to the management of public lands. It sets up a board of trustees to manage the ranch, rather than turning the property over to an established federal agency. The bill also directs the federal agencies to develop a plan to sell off surplus lands and use 80% of the money in-state to purchase in-holdings and lands that should be preserved for recreation or public use.

We need to finish the Baca bill quickly and get it to the President for his signature. As the summer goes on, Washington D.C. will start to seem more and more like Wonderland where nothing is as it seems and everything gets curiouser and curiouser. We don`t want the bill to get stuck behind some completely unrelated train wreck or become one element in someone else`s end-of-session deal.

If all goes well in the Resources Committee tomorrow, we should be able to get the bill to the floor of the House in early June. As long as there are no amendments tomorrow, the bill can go straight from the House to the President for his signature.

Wish you were here,

Heather
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