As you know, there are a number of legislative proposals pending before Congress which would use the outer continental shelf (OCS) revenues to help fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and various conservation programs. Senator Murkowski's bill, S. 2123, is the likely legislative vehicle moving in the Senate, so I will focus my comments on that bill. However, my major concerns with S. 2123 can also be associated with the other related measures.
While some of the goals of this legislation may be laudable, I also have several major concerns about the bill's language and its impact on private property rights. We need to continue working to reduce the number of inholdings on public lands throughout the West, including our national parks. However, rather than purchasing these areas, as proposed under S. 2123, I believe we should work to coordinate land exchanges that will allow us to reduce these inholdings without increasing federal land ownership. I do not believe we should take any action that would reduce the already limited amount of private property in my state.
I remain concerned about protecting private property rights and tax bases and still have concerns about the lack of protection against federal land grabs in S. 2123. That is why I will seek to amend S. 2123 when it is brought before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee next month.
My amendment would limit the amount of private land the federal government could acquire in states where 25 percent or more of the land is federally owned. Additionally, when the government purchases 100 acres or more, it would be required to sell back into private ownership land of equal value in the same state. Since 50 percent of Wyoming is already owned by the government, I am concerned about adding more federally owned land to our state that might be restricted for specific uses. Without successfully attaching my "No Net Loss Of Private Lands" amendment, S. 2123 has little if any chance of passing.
S. 2123 would also result in $45 billion in new entitlement programs over the next 15 years, increasing the difficulty to control spending by the federal government. Creating $3 billion in yearly permanent appropriations, which is not subject to review by Congress, allows the Administration too much discretion with Land and Water Conservation Funding (LWCF). Authorizing large permanent appropriations will require Congress to find offsets and place restrictions on other public land programs.
Over the past year, the National Park Service, Forest Service and BLM have all given estimates to Congress of backlog maintenance needs of several billion dollars each. We do not need to increase federal lands' responsibilities, we need to ensure land managers take care of what they already have.
The Senate Energy Committee has scheduled a markup of S. 2123 and I will be working with my colleagues to address the concerns I have raised. However, significant changes must be made to the bill to ensure that private property rights are protected and budget problems are addressed before it will gain my support.
Mr. Chairman, I will continue doing everything I can to return a sense of fiscal responsibility to this debate and protect private property owners in Wyoming as consideration of this issue continues.