Kempthorne expected to support land sales

BOISE – In the six weeks since he was nominated as U.S. secretary of interior, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has sidestepped questions about whether he backs President Bush’s proposal to sell off public lands to reduce the deficit and help rural schools.

But he’ll have to break his silence today. Several members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee opposed to the land sales are expected to grill Kempthorne during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.

“There are strong feelings about that proposal on both sides of the aisle, and there’s no question it will come up during the hearing,” said Marnie Funk, press secretary to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, chairman of the panel that later vote whether to forward Kempthorne’s nomination to the Senate floor for confirmation.

“We think the sale proposal stinks, but we understand Governor Kempthorne hasn’t taken a position yet because he’s been a senator and knows how it works around here,” said Bill Wicker, spokesman to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. “The quickest way to get your head shot off is to start talking like you are already confirmed.”

Kempthorne is expected to support Bush’s plan to sell 125,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property and 300,000 acres of national forest land to the highest bidder to raise money for the U.S. Treasury. Although as governor he has pushed for greater state control over federal lands, he endorsed similar federal land-sale proposals while serving as a U.S. senator from Idaho from 1992 to 1998.

In 1998, Kempthorne sponsored an amendment to the Senate version of the fiscal 1999 budget resolution that allowed proceeds from the sale of public lands to be used to compensate private landowners for taking steps to conserve endangered species.

Kempthorne’s amendment reversed an earlier amendment by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, that expressed the Senate’s objection to selling public lands to finance the federal landowner compensation program.

“This is not a question of whether we should sell excess BLM lands; it is taking place,” Kempthorne said on the Senate floor April 2, 1998. “It is a question of where the revenues should be utilized.”

But Reid, now the leader of the Senate Democrats, countered during the 1998 floor debate that Kempthorne’s amendment “will still allow Western lands to be sold at a fire sale to provide a quick fix for the Endangered Species Act.” Kempthorne’s amendment subsequently passed the Senate on a 55-43 vote.

Two years earlier, Kempthorne voted with the 57-41 majority to table an amendment to the Senate fiscal 1997-2002 budget resolution by Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., that would have restored a rule prohibiting federal land sales to reduce the federal deficit.

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig said that in his role as Idaho governor, Kempthorne would likely join Craig and other Western lawmakers in opposing the Bush plan. But Craig, a member of the committee that will question Kempthorne on Thursday, noted the governor won’t be representing Idaho at the hearing.

“Who is Dirk Kempthorne going to be at the moment that question is asked, the governor of Idaho or the nominee of the president? Obviously, he’ll be the nominee,” Craig said Wednesday. “He’s going to have to reconcile his position with that of the president, and I think that is doable.”