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Los Angeles Times
December 14, 2005

Revisions of Mining Law Put On Hold;
Critics say the proposals, purged from budget bill, could have led to selling
parkland to developers. A Nevada congressman says he'll try again.
BY Janet Wilson and Bettina Boxall

Republicans in Congress late Tuesday stripped proposed mining law revisions from
a budget bill that critics said could have led to the sell-off of millions of
acres of federal land, including portions of national parks and forests, such as
Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve.

The package faced mounting bipartisan opposition from Western senators, whose
support was crucial, after scores of groups, including a coalition of hunting
and fishing interests, complained. A Senate spokesman said opposition to the
mining law revisions could have jeopardized passage of the budget bill.

In an interview with The Times, the author of the proposals, Rep. Jim Gibbons
(R-Nev.), denied that criticism from park officials, hunting and fishing groups,
and others had led to the decision. He said the furor was the result of
"intentionally false and misleading information put out by anti-mining groups
... that had no impact on the fact that we are here today."

Gibbons vowed to reintroduce what he called comprehensive mining reform
legislation in the new year.

"Of course I'm disappointed," Gibbons said. "The process over on the Senate side
was a hurdle we could not overcome. But I am committed to bringing the mining
law of this country into the 21st century."

The legislation, which came out of the House Resources Committee, chaired by
Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), would have lifted a moratorium on the sale, or
patenting, of federally owned lands and allowed private development.

Gibbons said such legislation was needed to help poor, rural communities survive
after mining operations closed down and to maintain a domestic mining industry.

Critics, who had been caught off-guard when the mining provisions were tucked
into the House's massive budget bill last month, welcomed the news that they had
been stripped as part of the reconciliation process between the House and the
Senate.

"Excellent. That's a big relief," said Larry Whalon, acting superintendent for
Mojave National Preserve, which is studded with 432 active mining claims that he
feared could have been sold to private developers after being mined.

"We talked about condominiums," he said. "There was also the possibility of
landfills."

Whalon and others said they would be better prepared to review any new proposals
as they came up. "The cat's out of the bag now," he said.

Death Valley park Supt. J.T. Reynolds concurred: "It's a welcome stay of
execution."

Sid Smith, a spokesman for Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), said that under budget
reconciliation rules, the provisions could have required a 60-vote majority,
which would have been difficult to win, and might have torpedoed the entire
budget package, including language opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil drilling, which the Senate has approved.

"To be honest, [Craig] was concerned that the mining reform package might ...
make it difficult for the budget bill to pass," Smith said. "There was concern
that there were a few environmentally related issues like ANWR in the budget
bill, and if we had a few too many, those sorts of things might galvanize some
opposition to the budget bill as a whole."

Craig also was concerned that access for sportsmen might be limited by private
land sales allowed under Gibbons' mining law revisions, Smith said. He added
that Craig would probably be opposed to any land sale in national parks, but was
interested in working on a strong mining reform act next year.

In recent weeks, key GOP senators from Colorado, Wyoming and Montana expressed
misgivings about the land sales, agreeing with Senate Democrats Dianne Feinstein
of California and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.

Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana was quoted in his home-state press as
saying the bill was "crazy" and "not going anywhere."

On Tuesday, a coalition of more than two dozen hunting and fishing groups
claiming to represent 55 million hunters and fishermen sent a letter to Rep. Jim
Nussle, an Iowa Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, and Rep. John
M. Spratt Jr., a South Carolina Democrat and the committee's ranking minority
member, expressing "serious concerns."

"America's hunters and anglers depend upon public lands and waters ... to pursue
their tradition of hunting and fishing," the groups wrote. "This proposal to
sell public land is being universally poorly received throughout the hunting and
angling community."

Conservation groups also were pleased. Velma Smith, Mining Campaign Director for
the National Environmental Trust, said: "America's treasured public lands got an
early holiday present today when Congressman Gibbons announced that he would
retract his land giveaway plan from the House's budget bill."