Tornado Alley (PROG)

[DesertDrifter]

speaking of idiotic texans:

Bill calls for sale of a third of Forest Service and BLM property

May 3, 2015 9:34 AM MST

Potentially about one-third of national forest and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property could be sold to finance transportation infrastructure, under new legislation. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) introduced the American Land Act (H.R. 1931), which would require the United States Forest Service (USFS) and BLM to auction off for sale to the highest bidder eight percent of their real estate per year over the next five years, starting in FY 16. The bill became available online on the congressional website on Saturday, May 2, 2015.

The bill was referred to the committees on Natural Resources and Agriculture. Two other Texas Republicans, Sam Johnson and John Carter, cosponsored it. (The amount of land for sale would decline per year as sales would involve up to eight percent of a smaller number.)

The bill would allow the agencies to put restrictions on the sales that they deem in the “public interest.” But the bill assumes buyers would be interested in the mineral rights. The agencies would have to structure sales to maximize “marketability,” though the language puts some restrictions on the mineral rights for sale.

Buyers would have to be American citizens or American corporations or partnerships. All proceeds from the sales would go to the Highway Trust Fund. Poe says that the sales could pump billions of dollars into repairing the decaying roads and bridges across the country. And, of course, Poe says that the sales would create jobs and boost the economy. The bill would not apply to the National Park Service or Fish & Wildlife Service, he notes. But the Republican points out that the federal government owns about 27 percent of the land in the country.

http://www.examiner.com/article/bill-calls-for-sale-of-a-third-of-forest-service-and-blm-property

Sure, sell off our heritage to the 1% so that they don't have to pay to raise the money to improve infrastructure through taxes. This from a douchebag whose state (texas) is only comprised of 2% federal land. If he wants to raise money for roads so bad, why not just return the tax rates on the wealthy to where they were before his party cut them? Selling off our public domain lands would be a knife in the back of the common americans who enjoy free and open country.