WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today secured the inclusion and final passage of the bipartisan lands package she negotiated with House and Senate leaders within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2015. The lands package, Murkowski said, strikes the right balance between vital economic opportunities for western states and a handful of widely-supported conservation measures.

(Click for video of Sen. Murkowski’s floor speech)

“This package will create thousands of American jobs, cut red tape to energy production, and boost American mineral production,” said Murkowski, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s top Republican. “It will protect multiple-use and public recreation, convey federal land for economic and community development, protect treasured lands, and provide new means for private dollars to support our national parks.”

The bipartisan, bicameral, and cost-neutral package will promote job creation and economic growth through a balanced approach to improving public lands management, natural resource development, and conservation, while fully protecting private property rights and recreational interests. 

The Senate voted on a strongly bipartisan basis – 82 to 18 – to maintain the lands package as a title within NDAA.  The Senate later voted 89 to 11 to pass the broader NDAA bill.  

During floor remarks in support of the lands package, Murkowski praised retiring Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) for his service to the country and his attention to the crushing maintenance backlogs faced by federal land management agencies. Murkowski noted that she agreed with Sen. Coburn that these backlogs must be reduced, so that existing lands can be properly maintained, and that she will remain focused on this issue in the 114^th Congress.

Murkowski also noted that the weeks-long process to develop the lands title included extensive negotiations with “the committees of jurisdiction for the lands bills, the committees who crafted the NDAA bill, leadership from both chambers, and a wide variety of individual members.” 

The lands package augments the provisions that were already included in the House-passed NDAA bill. Nearly all of the bills within it had previously passed the House, the Senate, or the committees of jurisdiction in this Congress.     

A summary of the highlights of the lands package:

Expands Access to American Energy and Minerals

• Extends and expands nationwide the successful Bureau of Land Management permit streamlining program to increase oil and natural gas production from federal lands;
• Facilitates several proposed mineral development projects, including the third-largest undeveloped copper resource in the world; and
• Provides federal land management agencies with needed authorities to efficiently renew and process grazing permits and leases on more than 200 million acres of public rangeland.

Balances Conservation with Federal Land Conveyances

• Conveys more than 110,000 acres of land out of federal ownership for economic and community development, which will in turn help create good-paying jobs and new opportunities for thousands of Americans;
• Provides new means of enhancing private funding for parks;
• Designates a limited number of new park units, all of which have strong local support;

• Creates 245,000 acres of new wilderness areas – nearly half of which are already being treated “as if” wilderness, in the form of wilderness study or roadless areas; and
• Releases more than 26,000 acres back to multiple-use designation.

Advances Native American Interests

• Settles Northern Cheyenne’s claims against the federal government for failing to take the subsurface estate under its reservation into trust;
• Settles land claims for the Sealaska Native Corp.;
• Conveys federal property to an Alaska Native village for economic development; and
• Provides access and protection for cultural resources and traditional uses at Oak Flat and Apache Leap in Superior, Arizona.

Protects Private Property Rights

• Ensures private property interests are fully protected in all special land designations;
• Protects all private activities taking place outside of the special land designations;
• Ensures no private property can be condemned, and prevents acquisitions through eminent domain; and
• Prohibits buffer zones and protective perimeters.

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