Zinke and Rosendale Just Made It Easier to Give Away Public Lands
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 12, 2022
CONTACT
hadley@montanademocrats.org
Rules Package Vote Sends Clear Message: Zinke and Rosendale Don’t Care About Public Lands
Helena, MT – At the start of this week, U.S. House Republicans passed a rules package – after a tortuous five-day vote to find someone both willing and popular enough to lead their caucus – that includes a new rule that would make it easier to transfer public lands, a move that conservation and sportsmen groups have long decried.
The rule waives the requirement for the Congressional Budget Office to calculate taxpayers’ costs for any legislation that would remove federal management of our public lands, removing the requirement that the costs of these transfers be offset, regardless of the value of these lands to the public and taxpayers. The rule change – similar to one Zinke voted for in 2015 as well– will remove one of the most significant barriers to the surrender of federal control of public lands.
Why would Zinke and Rosendale vote to give away public lands? Public lands are one of the most enduringly popular policies in Montana – recent polling by the University of Montana - Crown of the continent reveals that 85% of voters say ‘conservation issues factor into their vote decision.’
“Rosendale or Zinke just removed the greatest obstacle to selling off our public lands. They are either content to ignore the will of their constituents or they’re simply incapable of standing up to their party leaders when it goes against Montana values,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party.
This is nothing new for Montana’s congressional delegation:
One of his party’s most radical, Representative Matt Rosendalecosponsored a bill that threatens wildlife management and public hunting and public access, by gutting Pittman-Robertson Act funding. In doing so, Rosendale disregarded public hunters and anglers, and ignored a broad swath of Montana sportsmen and women in every corner of the state.
Scandal-plagued former Secretary Ryan Zinke led the largest sell-off of public land in American history, during his short, corrupt tenure at the Department of the Interior. Zinke failed to protect big-game migratory corridors, instead selling out critical public lands habitat to his big oil buddies. He refuses to oppose his colleagues efforts to gut the Pittman-Robertson Act. As secretary, Zinke supported and pushed for a budget that essentially zeroed out the Land and Water Conservation Fund to less than 1 percent of its maximum allotment, which would gut this popular public lands and access program. As Outside Magazine described it, Ryan Zinke “Sabotaged Our Best Public Lands Program.”
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