Federal "No-Net-Gain" Bill
To Be Introduced In Senate

WASHINGTON — Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., plans to continue the push to change a conservation bill so that the federal government does not gain more land, his spokesman said.

Dan Kunsman predicted Thomas' amendment to the Conservation and Reinvestment Act will receive a friendlier reaction in the Senate next year than did a similar measure in the House earlier this month.

Those changes, offered by Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., failed before the House Resources Committee approved the bill 37-11.

Thomas' no-net-gain provision is different because it would only bar an increase in federal land acreage in states where the federal government owns 30 percent of the land or more, according to Kunsman.

The bill would invest $3 billion a year from offshore federal oil and gas receipts in federal, state and local conservation programs.

Cubin said she had widespread support from Wyoming constituents for her amendment, which was joined in defeat by a slew of other private property rights amendments offered by Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho.

``My office has been getting phone calls from people around the state who are emphatic that we don't need another entitlement program for acquisition of private lands,'' Cubin said.

Meanwhile, the $3 billion a year in redirected oil receipts ``has to come out of programs that are already being funded by Congress'' without any offsetting spending reductions in the lands bill, she said.

Ranking committee Democrat Rep. George Miller of California took issue with Cubin's assertion that federal acreage is on the rise.

``We've been disposing of more federal land in the last 10 years than we've been acquiring,'' he said.

A ban on any net gain of acreage could spoil deals between willing sellers and the government that would benefit the general public, he argued.

But Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. sided with Cubin that federal ownership is up in the lower 48 states, especially in land owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Montana Republican Rep. Rick Hill said he supported Cubin's amendment out of political necessity to limit federal ownership.

The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, whose board includes Wyoming Game and Fish Director John Baughman, praised the bill's success in the House as an environmental milestone.

``This vote is a major victory for our nation's wildlife,'' said Max Peterson, the former U.S. Forest Service chief who now serves as the agency's vice president.

``It signifies this Congress' commitment to the conservation and restoration of our precious wildlife, lands and coastal areas.''

Peterson said the arguments of private property rights groups are largely a smokescreen. The bill contains some of the most sweeping pro-private property provisions ever written into federal law, he claimed.