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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Outdoors blog

America’s Great Outdoors Act foiled

PUBLIC LANDS -- A last-ditch attempt to get a package of wilderness measures and public lands bills through Congress died this week on a single vote cast by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"These bills were bi-partisan, non-controversial, and critical for all regions of the country," said Reid spokeswoman Regan Lachapelle in an e-mail.
 
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had bundled dozens of the 110 public land measures into his "America's Great Outdoors Act," which rolled out last week. It was scuttled Monday in the face of Republican opposition even though most of the bills had bipartisan support in their states.
 
Reid's package included proposals to designate more than 300,000 acres of new wilderness, establish new national parks and monuments and protect critical watersheds, forests and endangered species.
 
See the New York Times story summarizing the bill's demise.


Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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