Bennett making late-session push on Washington County lands bill

By Thomas Burr and Robert Gehrke

The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune

Article Launched:09/24/2008 04:48:03 PM MDT

Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is making a major late-game push to try to get a Washington County land management bill through Congress before it adjourns for the year, but faces a tough road.

Bennett has been working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to find a major, must-pass piece of legislation that the Washington County bill can be attached to, but - in legislative parlance - there won't be many more trains leaving the station this year.

"We're sill looking for some way of getting it done. We'll just have to wait and see," Bennett said Wednesday.

The most likely vehicle appeared to be a spending bill that will fund federal programs through March.

That measure is also expected to carry the $700 billion economic bailout that the administration supports. But Bennett said Wednesday he doubts he can get the Washington County legislation included in that bill. It is not clear what other legislation Congress will act on before it adjourns, potentially as early as Friday.

"We're hopeful. We've kind of been waiting to hear every day that it's been attached and moving forward.

There's been a lot of effort going into it," said Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner.

The Washington County bill, designed to help the fastest-growing county in the country deal with the demands of its booming population, has been one of Bennett's top legislative priorities for the past five years.

The bill would add 264,394 acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System and expand the wilderness areas in the county. It would make 165 miles of the Virgin River the first Wild and Scenic River in the state, and create two conservation areas. It would allow up to 5,000 acres of excess, non-sensitive federal land to be sold. That proposal was significantly scaled back from an earlier version of the bill, which would put up to 20,000 acres on the auction block and drew vocal opposition from environmental groups. The Wilderness Society is now on board with the revised version.

"Senator Reid is aware that is a priority for Senator Bennett," Reid's spokesman, Jon Summers, said this week.

"As everyone is aware, there are a lot of moving parts this week and we're not sure exactly how things will end at the moment."

Two years ago, Bennett and Reid each had similar land management legislation, Bennett's for Washington County and Reid's for White Pine County, Nev. Bennett had said the two bills were going to move in tandem, but in a flurry of activity before Congress adjourned, Reid's bill ended up passing, while the Washington County bill was left behind.

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