Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The 759-page measure (S. 3213) includes eight wilderness measures, 17 new heritage areas, 25 different National Park Service proposals and 12 water bills, all of which the committee has favorably reported.

Bingaman's maneuver is designed to circumvent potential roadblocks in the Senate and move the bills by the end of the 110th Congress. In April, the Senate cleared a similar omnibus package of 62 public lands bills after they were delayed in part due to procedural "holds" by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who claimed the bills were fiscally irresponsible.

Combined, the wilderness measures alone would protect more than 900,000 acres of land across five states, including areas in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park (S. 1380), Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (S. 2379) and West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest (H.R. 5151).

Several scenic river and trail designations are also on tap, including S. 868, a contentious proposal that would designate 40 miles of the Taunton River as wild and scenic, from the headwaters all the way to Mount Hope Bay in Fall River, Mass., the site of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal.

The package also includes legislation to establish a collaborative and science-based forest landscape restoration program that would prioritize and fund ecological restoration treatments. Sponsors say S. 2593 would lead to an overall reduction of wildfire management costs by focusing funding on collaborative, sustainable projects that offer the greatest protections against devastating wildfires.

With high energy prices leading the debate in Congress, a controversial Wyoming land withdrawal could give the package some trouble on the Senate floor.

S. 2229 from Wyoming Republican Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi would withdraw 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range -- part of the Bridger Teton National Forest that sits south of Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park -- from future energy development and would prohibit new oil and gas leasing on the land.

Trouble in House?

It is unclear how the House will respond to the 96-bill omnibus measure.

Unlike the earlier omnibus public lands bill, which was purposely made up of bills and proposals that had already passed the House and earned quick approval by President Bush, the House has not approved all the bills in the new omnibus.

"The glide path is not going to be as obstruction-free as the last one," said committee spokesman Bill Wicker.

Wicker said the package would likely go through several revisions, like its predecessor, to alleviate different concerns lawmakers have before it gets to the Senate floor, adding that lawmakers anticipate taking up the package some time during the next work period after the Fourth of July recess next week.

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