Statement of Administration Policy: S. 1183 - Omnibus Land Management Amendments

(SENT 9/29/92)
(House)
(Garn (R) UT and Hatch (R) UT)

The Administration generally supports enactment of the various land management provisions that make up S. 1183 as reported by the House Interior Committee. However, as the Congress continues its consideration of this bill, the Administration urges that the following provisions be modified as noted below.

Sunrise Mountain Utility Corridor (Utah) (Section 401) should be amended to:

— Remove the limitation on the number and type of rights-of-way allowed in the corridor.

— Release the Sunrise Mountain Instant Study Area from wilderness study status to reflect the area's lack of wilderness character.

The Claimed Rights-of-Way (Section 402) provision should be deleted from the bill. This language would:

— Create a complex, confusing, duplicative, unnecessary and costly process for determining the validity of rights-of-way across public lands claimed under Revised Statutes section 2477.

— Raise significant legal, policy and funding problems for State and local governments and impose an unrealistic time frame for identification of claimed rights-of-way.

Moreover, under this provision, any change in these rights-of-way in Alaska conservation units must use procedures under Title XI of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. These long and expensive procedures could result in substantial environmental damage to the conservation units.

Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (Idaho) (Title V) language would:

— Provide inadequate protection for historic uses, including grazing.

— Include an unrelated provision for a land exchange in Moscow Mountain, Idaho. The Secretary of the Interior would have to accept 300 acres of Idaho State land for management as a wilderness study area. In exchange, the Secretary must convey unspecified Federal land to the State. The Secretary would then be authorized to convey the 300 acres at no cost to Latah County, Idaho. There is no justification for this gratuitous conveyance.

Title V is similar to H.R. 2141, Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, as reported by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Adoption of the Senate version of H.R. 2141 would eliminate the problems with Title V of S. 1183.