POCATELLO, IDAHO (December 10, 2020) — In July of this year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that included provisions that would create 100,000s of acres of new wilderness in Colorado, Washington, and California. The Senate version of the same bill did not contain these provisions. The conference report of the NDAA is currently before the Senate, and the provisions creating wilderness provisions have been removed. BlueRibbon Coalition supports the removal of these provisions from the NDAA.
“Legislative efforts to restrict public access to public land should never be passed on the merits of our federal government’s Constitutional requirement to provide for the national defense. If these wilderness bills were as popular as we are led to believe, they would pass on their own merits and wouldn’t need to be tied to a must-pass bill whose purpose is to support our military,” BlueRibbon Coalition Policy Director, Ben Burr, said. “We are grateful for the thousands of activists and partner organizations who let their members of Congress know that these provisions should be removed.”
BlueRibbon Coalition plans to continue to monitor the efforts to pass these bills on behalf of those who agree that the public should have access to public land. You can learn more here:Â https://blueribboncoalition.org/tell-congress-no-lame-duck-wilderness/
