Committee nixes
language barring rights of way from bill
HISTORIC: Bill allows state access to federal
conservation areas.
The Associated
Press
(Published: October 30, 2003)
A conference committee deleted the proposal Monday from the
Interior Department's annual spending bill.
The proposal would have prevented the issuance of
"recordable disclaimers" to recognize old transportation rights of way
and other property claims in federal conservation areas.
Environmental groups protested the conference committee action, which allows the Bush administration to continue with a policy it adopted in January on all federal lands, including parks and refuges.
"By removing the language, Congress lets the Bush administration give away America's treasured wildlands to profiteering developers," said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness.
John Katz, head of Gov. Frank Murkowski's Washington, D.C., office, said environmental groups will still have ways to comment on claims to rights of way and other property.
"It's important to note that recordable disclaimers are merely a mechanism for resolving title disputes between the federal government and another party," Katz told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "They involve public input and notice, and aggrieved parties with standing would still have the opportunity to sue."
The state is seeking ownership of trail and road rights of way created under a federal statute that was repealed in 1976. The state also wants beds of navigable rivers, which by federal law belong to the state. Murkowski has said such lands and rights of way are important for traditional access and development in a state where almost a third of the land is in federal conservation areas.
The Interior Department funding bill now returns to each house of Congress for final acceptance before heading to President Bush for his signature. Rejection in either chamber is unlikely.