House committee kills land-sale proposal

Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., says the House Appropriations Committee has killed legislation that would have authorized a plan to sell national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands.

The program was proposed by the Bush administration as a source of revenue to allow reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act.

That legislation has for the past six years provided funding to counties and schools that had been provided mostly by federal timber-sale proceeds.

The land-sale proposal involved about 300,000 acres of national forest lands, including about 14,000 acres in Montana. The sale list was made up of tracts that were considered isolated, difficult and expensive to manage, and "no longer meet national forest system needs," according to Mark Rey, undersecretary of Agriculture.

The proposal was met with furious opposition from citizen groups and Western lawmakers, including Montana's congressional delegation.

"The sale of these lands, particularly in a Western state like Montana, threatens our tradition of outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing," Rehberg said Wednesday.

The congressman said he and a coalition of lawmakers on the appropriations committee mainly objected to the idea because it involved selling off a public trust to fund a temporary program. As described by Rey, the land sales proposal was intended to generate $800 million to fund the "county payments" program during seven years.

"We think it's bad policy because it's a one-time fix," Rehberg said in a telephone interview from

Washington, D.C.

But Rehberg said the proposal could resurface in other legislation this year.

"There are many other places this can be put in," he said. "Just because we've dealt with it in committee doesn't mean its over with."

Although the land-sale program has drawn harsh criticism, Rey has emphasized that there is strong bipartisan support for reauthorizing the county payments program. The administration insists that Congress will need to find "new revenue" to pay for it, and Rey says the land-sale program was the best option.

But Rehberg and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., say that's not the case.

Baucus has proposed an alternative - requiring government contractors to pay up-front taxes - as a means of fully funding the county payments program. The administration's proposal would generate roughly half the amount that has been distributed to counties and schools since the program was started in 2000.

Rehberg said there may be other options.

"I intend to keep leaning on my colleagues to ensure we find a better way to fund" schools and counties, he said. "A one-time land sale isn't the shot in the arm this program needs."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com