Senate passes land conservation bill, protecting 1.3 million acres - Polidicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/02/12/the-senate-just-passed-the-most-sweeping-conservation-legislation-in-a-decade-protecting-millions-of-acres-of-land/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d1b281a00fa0 The bill protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation’s most stringent protection that prohibits even roads and motorized vehicles. It permanently withdraws from mining more than 370,000 acres of land around two national parks, including Yellowstone, and permanently authorizes a program to spend offshore drilling revenue on conservation efforts.

How come it passed, what's the small print of this bill?

The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide. The legislation establishes four new monuments, including the Mississippi home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers and the Mill Springs Battlefield in Kentucky, home to the decisive first Union victory in the Civil War. The bill reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, which provides habitat protection for more than 380 bird species, and codifies a signature program of Barack Obama’s. That program, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, allows U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks for free. What the fuck is going on? Why did something really nice happen? What is this strange, almost foreign feeling?

You know its bad when something "good" (read:what should be fucking typical) happens and you immediately start looking for ulterior motives.

Watch as Trump refuses to sign it.

The only thing I don't much care for about it is the bit that prohibits motorized vehicles. Ostensibly it's to prevent Johnny Q Dumbass from using his brodozer to roll coal at endangered species before ripping some fat donuts in their habitat, which is something I 100% agree should be prevented, but I can easily see it also being used to prevent people with RC crawlers/scalers/trail rigs...vehicles which are too small, too light, and too electric to do any damage to the environment...from having a trail adventure. And I see no harm in a bunch of guys with <10lb totally electric RC trucks from havin' some fun out in the wilderness.

Despite common belief, national parks and monuments are widely supported by the populace, both liberal and conservative for preserving natural beauty, providing a source of revenue through hunting licenses, and providing rural towns with income with tourists looking to take in the sights.

obviously

Teddy Roosevelt's legacy lives on!

It's a 92-to-8 win. That's a supermajority; we can ram it through whether he vetoes it or not. I agree, though: what's the catch? This is a Republican Senate; there has to be a catch. Start looking for some sort of rider that says Wall Street execs above a certain net worth are now allowed to suck out the blood of three dark-skinned infants per day or something.

why would something nice happen

You can tell how abused we are.

the catch is probably trump will sign this justifying the destruction of wildlife habitats along the border

It's really sad how apt the whole domestic abuser analogy is to our situation.

It irks me that this is my mindset is general nowadays :I

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/13/big-alaskan-land-giveaway-tucked-into-sweeping-conservation-bill/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ee7ec9b423a5 Gives half a million acres of public lands to private owners in the guise of letting Native American Vietnam veterans have it

I knew it. There had to be a catch.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE YOU ASSHOLES.

Also adds a provision so that in two years it will be revisited whether land from 15 separate wildlife refuges can be given to private ownership under this scheme.