Sudetenland Tales by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Sudetenland Tales

Page 196

Sen. Mike Lee's (R-Utah) proposal to require the sale of a de minimis amount of Western public lands was dealt a potentially fatal blow yesterday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the provision could not be included in the reconciliation bill moving through Congress.

The ruling follows a relentless opposition campaign to Lee's proposal from Democrats, conservation groups, and even some conservatives who've painted doomsday scenarios about Americans' "birthright" being sold off for Section 8 condo developments.

Lee said yesterday that he's in talks with the parliamentarian to include a scaled back version of his initial proposal in the budget bill.

Whether that will be enough to win over the parliamentarian remains to be seen. It will almost certainly not be enough to mollify opponents, who've leveled a relentless stream of often inaccurate, contradictory criticisms of the idea that any federal lands might ever be privatized.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told the Associated Press that Lee's bill would produce not enough development and too much development at the same time.