Lummis Seeks Land Sale Funding

A bill authored by Wyoming’s US Representative Cynthia Lummis to reauthorize the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act could help complete the sale of three parcels of land in Grand Teton National Park by the state.  Last year, officials from Wyoming and the Interior Department agreed to exchange the land for $17-million dollars over a period of four years.  However, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the federal debt now endangered the completion of that sale.  In 2000, Congress had enacted the Federal Land Transaction and Facilitation Act authorizing the Bureau of Land Management to sell public lands identified for disposal through the land use planning process prior to that time and to retain the proceeds from the sales in a special account set up in the Treasury, to be available without further appropriation. That act had sunset in July.  Lummis calls the measure “a balanced and innovative tool capable of making sense of patchworks of public land without leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill”  Lummis says the act has proved itself to be a successful program in the past for Wyoming, and so can help move forward with a solution for the state land parcels sale.  Lummis’ bill is supported by such conservation organizations as the Conservation Fund, the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Sierra Club.