The bill passed 92 to 8….
It will pass the House by the end of the month and Trump is expected to sign it into law….
Ah, Conservation and Republicans?….. Usually do NOT mix…
And in these time of political differences in Washington DC?
This thing sails thru…..
The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon.
The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide.
“It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
It’s a paradoxical win for conservation at a time when President Trump has promoted development on public lands and scaled back safeguards established by his predecessors.
The bill, which the Congressional Budget Office projects would save taxpayers $9 million, enjoys broad support in the House. The lower chamber is poised to take it up after the mid-February recess, and White House officials have indicated privately that the president will sign it.
The measure protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation’s most stringent protection, which prohibits even roads and motorized vehicles. It permanently withdraws more than 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks, including Yellowstone, and permanently authorizes a program to spend offshore-drilling revenue on conservation efforts….
Note….
Ok….
The fact is the bill contains SOMETHING for everyone…..
Why would a lawmaker vote against bring home the bacon for each of their states and most districts?
image…NY Times
Old-fashioned log-rolling: you do this for my state and I’ll support that for yours.
Here are the 8 nays, few of them (as I had imagined) from Sagebrush Rebellion Republicans in wide-open states with vast Federal lands that drillers, loggers and miners want to exploit. Mike Lee of Utah would be one who does, but he’s also a hard-core small-government libertarian.
Cruz (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Paul (R-KY)
Sasse (R-NE)
Toomey (R-PA)
Making it look good for the party, eh?