A letter signed by 111 national and state organizations from across the country was delivered to the US House of Representatives requesting that Members oppose the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

This legislation contains over 1,000 pages and is comprised of more than 100 different land grab bills. From wilderness areas to heritage areas to wild and scenic rivers, this omnibus bill advances a centralized command-and-control vision of American lands. The federal government already owns over 650 million acres of land, much of which is experiencing severe maintenance backlogs or has already gone into disarray. The omnibus bill would lock millions of additional acres of land into government regulation, preventing American citizens from exercising their right of property ownership.

By restricting access to land for energy exploration, this legislation is limiting the potential of the economy and directly interfering with America’s entrepreneurial drive. Through the creation of unnecessary new “conservation” programs, millions of additional acres of land will be managed by a vast government bureaucracy and its additional levels of “red tape.” This bill would ultimately force the American taxpayer to fund the purchase of land that could have otherwise been utilized in the private sector.

 

Click here for a pdf version of the entire letter