1996 News Archive
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROVES GRAZING BILL
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 30, 1997 -- Western family ranchers won a resounding victory today as the House of Representatives approved the Forage Improvement Act of 1997, HR 2493, on a 242 to 182 vote, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the Public Lands Council said. The bill, introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Smith, R-Ore., would increase stability in the cattle industry by allowing federal- lands ranchers to plan for forage use.
"NCBA commends Chairman Smith, Resources Committee Chairman Don Young and congressional staff for their work in moving the process forward and ensuring broad, bipartisan support for the bill while at the same time protecting key measures that will provide relief to federal-lands grazing permittees," said Jeff Menges, a cattle producer from Morenci, Ariz., who is chairman of the NCBA Federal Lands Committee.
A key feature of the bill would base range management decisions on sound science by requiring scientific monitoring of grazing conditions and allowing agencies to coordinate monitoring with ranchers and qualified rangeland consultants.
"We look forward to continuing efforts in the Senate to have similar legislation introduced and moved early next year, and ultimately signed into law," said Brent Atkin, a cattle producer from St. George, Utah, who is president of the Public Lands Council.
As approved by the House, the bill would:
- require the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to coordinate their administration of grazing management programs;
- create new discretionary authority for the government and ranchers to enter into
- cooperative allotment management plans where the rancher is meeting rangeland management goals;
- prohibit subleasing of grazing allotments by absentee ranchers; and
- implement a codified, equitable grazing fee formula that increases the current fee by 36 percent.
Initiated in 1898, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the marketing organization and trade association for America's one million cattle farmers and ranchers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.
The Public Lands Council represents permittees who hold leases and permits to graze livestock on the federal lands in the West administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service. It also coordinates the federal- lands policies of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, American Sheep Industry Association and the Association of National Grasslands. PLC is dedicated to the principle of sound management of federal lands for grazing and other multiple use purposes.
###