Tule Springs Fossil Beds bill clears House

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to declare prized prehistoric fossil beds in the Las Vegas Valley as a government-protected national monument, part of a bill that combined defense programs with parks and public lands.

Lawmakers voted 300-119 for a $585 billion bill authorizing Department of Defense activities for 2015.

But a deal engineered late in the post-election lame-duck session added 93 natural resource and energy initiatives to the must-pass bill. Projects were scattered among the states; Nevada got eight.

The measure, headed to the Senate for final votes next week, would create the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument on 22,650 acres in Clark County where conservationists and the business community have sought to preserve Ice Age artifacts that have drawn researchers from around the world.

Farther north in Nevada, the legislation would authorize the city of Yerington to buy 11,500 acres of federal land to spur development of the Pumpkin Hollow copper mine that community leaders see as a big economic opportunity and job creator.

The bill also would create two new wilderness areas in the state — a 49,000-acre Wovoka Wilderness in Lyon County and a 26,000-acre Pine Forest Range Wilderness in Humboldt County. It also would expand the boundaries of the Red Rock National Conservation Area outside Las Vegas by 1,530 acres while freeing up for other uses 10,240 acres at Sunrise Mountain that was studied by the Bureau of Land Management but rejected as potential wilderness.

It also would clear for passage a number of Nevada lands bills that have languished in Congress in recent years, including one that would grant the University of Nevada, Las Vegas an 1,886-acre parcel in North Las Vegas for a future campus. Another would convey 1,211 acres within the BLM’s Nellis Dunes Recreation Area to Clark County for an off-roaders’ park.

Overall, the package would establish six new national parks, expand nine others and extend 14 National Heritage areas, according to the National Park Conservation Association that called it “the most significant national park system expansion in decades.”

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said it would add 245,000 acres of new wilderness, but also remove 110,000 acres from federal ownership. He said it would reduce permit delays for energy exploration on public land and reduce backlogs of grazing permits.

The bill passed the House over a scattering of criticism by lawmakers who challenged adding lands measures to a defense bill. Nevada’s four House members voted for it, as leaders of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, a major backer of a Tule Springs federal site, watched from the visitors’ gallery.

“We’re pretty optimistic that things are going to go well,” said Kristin McMillan, chamber executive officer.

The bill is expected to run into further objections in the Senate, including from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who traditionally scrutinizes federal land bills. Coburn said in a letter he would “utilize all procedural options at my disposal as a United States senator” to block this one.

“The decision to attach an extreme land grab to the National Defense Authorization Act is a disservice to members of the Armed Forces,” added Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “With the military’s shrinking budget, it is offensive that this bill would be used to fund congressional pork.”

Anticipating efforts to block the bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was preparing to file cloture in advance of debate next week, Senate officials said. That would require a 60-vote margin for final passage.

Reid said Thursday he believed it will pass, an assessment echoed by Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

“We are one step closer to Tule Springs and other important land bills for Nevada’s economy getting signed into law,” Reid said in a statement. “The Senate will take up this legislation as soon as we can and I look forward to its passage.”

“The public lands priorities for Nevada included in the FY 2015 NDAA legislation will benefit our entire state,” Heller said.

On Wednesday evening, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev. and representatives of Reid, Heller, and Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., held a telephone briefing with Southern Nevada conservationists and local government officials, a coalition that has lobbied for federal recognition of Tule Springs.

“There was a lot of discussion about what it meant to be part of the NDAA, and what they expected,” said Lynn Davis, Nevada program director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “It was, here’s what’s going to happen and let’s keep very hopeful. We’re not home yet.”

Titus said the national monument designation “is 11,000 years in the making. Tule Springs tells the story of this region dating back thousands of years, and as a unit of the National Park Service, will attract even more visitors to Nevada.”

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said adding lands initiatives to a defense bill “is not my preference,” but he was satisfied the ones affecting Nevada had been sufficiently scrutinized and were “worthy.”

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC.