Green Elephant Line Media Backgrounder

House Republicans Shouldn't Let Democrats Take All the Credit for Conservation  Bill

March 24, 2009

After a tortuous path through a thicket of procedural maneuvers, an omnibus land conservation package is on the verge of getting through Congress and heading towards the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue for final signature.

The bill swept through the Senate last week with a bipartisan majority that was even more impressive than the margin by which it passed in January. A majority of the Senate's Republicans helped pad the 77-20 majority by which the bill passed. The House plans to vote on the measure on Wednesday.

House Republicans have one final opportunity to join their colleagues in the upper house to put a firm Republican stamp of approval on the most significant conservation legislation that Congress has considered in 15 years. There are two reasons why.

First, supporting the omnibus lands bill would be politically smart - a demonstration that Republicans will get behind conservation measures that enjoy broad popular support across the political spectrum. There is no reason to let Democrats take all the credit for them.

Second, it's a chance for House Republicans to show that they're rediscovering the conservative tradition of good stewardship. There could be no better way than by voting to protect outstanding examples of America's natural and historical heritage.

There is much to like in the bill, which the House has scheduled for a floor vote on Wednesday.

Wilderness - Two million acres in nine states would be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System, from the historic Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the lonely eastern face of the Sierra, home to millennia-old bristlecone pines, the world's oldest living things.

National Parks - Three new national parks would be designated in Arkansas, Michigan, and New Jersey.

Rivers and Trails - Three rivers in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Wyoming would be added to America's Wild and Scenic Rivers system. The bill also designates six national trails, including the Washington-Rochambeau trail, which passes through lands where the climactic battles of the Revolutionary War took place, and the Ice Age Floods trail, where visitors can see signs of the cataclysmic floods that swept through the Pacific Northwest 12 to 17 millennia ago.

National Landscape Conservation System - The bill gives statutory permanence to a system protecting 26 million acres of remote public wildlands in the West that showcase spectacular scenery and archaeological treasures.

The bill also designates three national conservation areas, establishes a national monument with fossil footprints of ancient creatures, creates 10 national heritage areas, protects the scenic Wyoming Range from oil and gas exploration, and authorizes ocean exploration research programs that would support weather forecasting, shipping, and marine resource conservation.

Conservation is conservative. House Republicans have a chance to show that they get it when the omnibus lands bill, HR 146, comes up for a planned vote Wednesday.