Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 - Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 - Fax: 360-687-2973
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE - Washington, DC 20003

S22 Omnibus Lands House Vote Next Week (Feb 9-13), Call Now!

All S22 opponents must deluge their Congressman with calls opposing this giant omnibus land grab bill. Remember, the House is using the Senate number S 22.

You must make your Congressman responsible for his or her vote on S22. He or she must know you and your allies will not forget and that he or she will be held accountable. That is the only way you can compete in this new Congress.

See Below How Your Senators Voted On S22 Omnibus Lands Bill

You want to make sure you give your Senators the credit they deserve.

-----If you do nothing else, please forward this message to as many people as possible on your list.

-----House Vote On S22 Likely After February 10th. - Call Now!

-----You must deluge your Congressman with opposition to S22.

Call, fax, e-mail and visit your Congressman.

-----Every Congressman must know in advance there will be a cost to them associated with their vote on S22.

-----If you fail to make them believe that, you will have no chance to compete in Congress in the next two years.

Call your friends, neighbors, and as many others as you can.

Includes Babbitt 26,000,000 Acre National Landscape Conservation System.

150 Wilderness And Lock Up Bills Included In Omnibus Land Grab.

American Land Rights Will Send The Results Showing How Your Congressman Voted.

You Have Little Time To Call And Make A Difference.

-----Background

Dear Land Rights Ally:

You can help stop the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill (S22) that passed the Senate a few days ago. You now must focus on your Congressman.

It's critical that you call, write, fax and e-mail too. You don't have time to use US Mail. Send your letters by fax or e-mail. Time is urgent.

The Omnibus Federal Lands bill is one of the largest land grabs in history. Just one bill in the 150 bill package, the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), covers 26 million acres and will lock you out of BLM multiple-use, energy lands, national monuments and Wild and Scenic Rivers. Grazing, mining, forestry and many other uses will be greatly affected.

S22 will add dozens of new National Heritage Areas and Wilderness Areas that will eventually be a land use control network strangling hundreds of thousands of local people and rural America.

-----You can see a map of the National Landscape Conservation System at www.landrights.org


In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) bought votes by putting every bill he could find in the package to buy off opposing Senators. In other words, he looked for a bill that each Senator wanted and put it in the bill. That way few Senators would oppose him even though this bill is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and do great damage in their individual state.

An example is Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. S22 puts a road through a Wildnerness area that she wants. So she is ignoring the National Landscape Conservation System, also in the bill, that will do great harm to the people of Alaska. Senator Murkowski voted yes on S22.

The House is using the Senate number S22. The vote will be soon. The danger from an omnibus bill is that they package all the lands, Wilderness, Wild and Scenic Rivers and any other bills of that type they can find into one bill. It's likely your Congressman has something in the bill.

The strategy is that by giving every Congressman something in the bill they want, they won't oppose the bill when it comes up for passage. They won't look at all the other bad stuff. And the leaders are usually right.

-----You need to insist that your Congressman ask for a vote on each individual bill. Let your Congressman know you will hold him or her accountable for the vote on S22.

-----
American Land Rights will send you the vote results so you can give your Congressman proper credit.
-----

A major problem is that S22 is over 1,000 pages long including over 150 separate bills. It's likely that not a single Congressman has read the entire bill. So there are bills included that your Congressman would likely oppose if they came up as a single bill.

This practice of using omnibus bills puts you in grave danger.

When you call your Congressman (every Congressman can be called at 202-225-3121) you must not only oppose the various land grab portions of the bill, but you need to make a big deal about your
Congressman voting for an omnibus bill where he has never read the entire bill.

You need to make an issue of the fact that he is not protecting you or doing his job. If they have not read the bill, they should not vote for it.

Each bill should be considered on its own merits and not as a fruit salad. Everything we have told you in the past about S22 in the Senate is the same for S22 in the House.

Here are just a few reasons why you should oppose S22.

-----1. S22 puts into law the 26,000,000 acre Babbitt National Landscape Conservation System locking up energy and access to Federal lands. It locks you out. S22 puts National Park type land use controls over every BLM National Monuments, Wild and Scenic River and lots of other areas.

-----2. Creates many new Wilderness Areas and Heritage Areas. Millions of acres locked up.

-----3. S22 takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would equal our domestic natural gas production for 15 years.

-----4. S22 would spend $1 billion on a water project designed to save 500 salmon in Calif. At $2 million a head, each salmon would be worth far more than its weight in gold.

-----5. S22 would spend $3.5 million to celebrate the 450th birthday of St. Augustine Florida in 2015.

-----6. S22 spends $250,000 to help bureaucrats decide how to designate Alexander Hamilton's boyhood home.

-----7. S22 spends $5 million on botanical gardens in Hawaii and Florida.

-----hese are only the tip of the iceberg. It goes on and on and on. There are over 150 different bills in S22. So the total cost will be in the billions of dollars. The regulatory and land use limitation implications of this bill are enormous.

-- Action Items --

-----1. Please join other landowners, users of Federal lands, and rural Americans to defeat the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill - S22. Remember that this bill includes the dreaded 26,000,000 acre Babbitt National Landscape Conservation System.

-----2. Please send a letter by fax or e-mail to your Congressman opposing the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill - S22. You do not have time to use regular mail.

-----3. You may call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121. Ask for the staff person who handles Federal lands issues and in particular the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill. Ask for their fax number and e-mail address.

There is no way to overstate how damaging S22, the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill, is to you. It affects everyone and is the largest land grab in the last 30 years. ALRA is sending letters, faxes and e-mails to hundreds of thousands of people.

It must be an all out effort. This is an incredible land grab. Please do your part. Please help build a broad based coalition nationally to stop this incredible land grab.

Chuck Cushman
American Land Rights Association
(360) 687-3087
[email protected]


-----How Your Senator Voted on S 22 - Omnibus Federal Land Grab

-----Here is the vote broken down by State. Grouped by Home State

Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Nay Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Alaska: Begich (D-AK), Yea Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Nay
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR), Yea
California: Boxer (D-CA), Yea Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Colorado: Salazar (D-CO), Yea Udall (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Yea Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Not Voting Carper (D-DE), Yea
Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Nay Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Yea Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Idaho: Crapo (R-ID), Yea Risch (R-ID), Yea
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Yea Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Nay Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS), Nay Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Kentucky: Bunning (R-KY), Not Voting McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Yea Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting - Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Minnesota: Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Yea Wicker (R-MS), Yea
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Yea Tester (D-MT), Yea
Nebraska: Johanns (R-NE), Nay Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Nay Reid (D-NV), Yea
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH), Yea Shaheen (D-NH), Yea
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Udall (D-NM), Yea
New York: Clinton (D-NY), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC), Nay Hagan (D-NC), Yea
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Yea Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Not Voting Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Oklahoma: Coburn (R-OK), Nay Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Oregon: Merkley (D-OR), Yea Wyden (D-OR), Yea
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Yea Specter (R-PA), Yea
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Yea Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
South Carolina: DeMint (R-SC), Nay Graham (R-SC), Nay
South Dakota: Johnson (D-SD), Yea Thune (R-SD), Nay
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN), Yea Corker (R-TN), Yea
Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Nay Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT), Yea Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Virginia: Warner (D-VA), Yea Webb (D-VA), Yea
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Murray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Yea Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Wyoming: Barrasso (R-WY), Yea Enzi (R-WY), Yea

Make sure your let your Senators know in person and by letter that you know how they voted and you will remember. They must get the credit they deserve.

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