Democrat Senate Endorses Federal Land Grab

Statement

Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement after the Senate voted 58-38 against an amendment he sponsored that would have stopped President Obama's administration from seizing over 10 million acres of land in 9 Western states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. According to a recent memo from the U.S. Department of Interior, the administration is considering designating 14 sites as national monuments without Congressional approval or local input.

Such a measure would immediately halt use of the lands for mining, forestry, ranching activities, and energy development which would negatively affect employment and local tax bases. The federal government owns approximately 650 million acres nationwide, including about 80% of the land in Nevada and 63% of the land in Utah.

"This is a big government land-grab that appeases liberal environmental lobbyists at the expense of American jobs, energy resources, and economic development," said Senator DeMint. "Without this amendment, the President will be able to lock up millions of acres with the stroke of a pen, instead of working with the states and towns that will be most affected. Jobs in these areas provide taxes that are essential to funding local schools, fire houses and community centers. The Democrat majority could have stood up for Americans and saved jobs today, but instead they chose to placate liberal activists. This out-of-control federal government should stop from taking freedom away one acre at a time."

The recently released memo clearly outlines the secret plans the Administration had to create 14 new monuments in nine states. These sites include the Northwest Sonoran Desert, Arizona; the Berryessa Snow Mountains, California; the Bodie Hills, California; the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, California; the Modoc Plateau, California; the Vermillion Basin, Colorado; the Northern Montana Prairie, Montana; the Heart of the Great Basin, Nevada; the Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, New Mexico; the Otero Mesa, New Mexico; the Owyhee Desert, Oregon and Nevada; the Cedar Mesa region, Utah; the San Rafael Swell, Utah; and the San Juan Islands, Washington.

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