FRANKFORT, KY – Attorney General Daniel Cameron has opposed a federal government land grab that would hurt the American economy, including its agriculture industry.
The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposed rule would allow the federal government to redesignate multi-use land as conservation land. The proposal relies on a complete misinterpretation of BLM's authority under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).
"The idea that President Biden and federal bureaucrats can turn a land use statute into a tool for prohibiting any use at all is offensive to our constitutional order," said Attorney General Cameron. "A 'conservation-or-nothing' policy that would lock up public land and throw away the key would hurt American agriculture and our entire economy, with the effects felt in states across the country."
In a letter to BLM, a coalition of 17 attorneys general oppose the agency's decision to ignore the delicate balance Congress has struck between the conservation and use of public land. "BLM . . . [is attempting] to demote Congress' authority so that it can expand its own power and put a thumb on the scale in favor of conservation," the coalition writes. "This proposed rule must be challenged for the overreach it represents."
When Congress passed FLPMA in 1976, from which BLM says it derives the power to impose its conservation rule, Congress "did not add conservation to FLPMA's multiple-use framework because conservation is not a form of use." Put simply, the Biden Administration's actions fly in the face of a nearly 50-year-old piece of bipartisan legislation.
Attorney General Cameron was joined by attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming in sending today's letter.
To read a copy of the letter, click HERE.
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