New Natural Resources chief looks to overhaul federal land policy

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Rep. Rob Bishop has a radical plan for changing public land policy, and it starts with an experiment in his home state of Utah.

 

The Republican is known for shaking things up with his dry sense of humor and occasional belligerence toward Obama administration officials. Easily identified by his three-piece suits and coiffed white hair, the new House Natural Resources Committee chairman is trying to turn his panel from a legislative backwater into a driver of reform.

 

"If you're going to keep a program, let's make it do something and think outside the box," Bishop told the Washington Examiner during an interview in his committee's office. "To actually use these programs and make them do something for people, make them actually benefit people, not just pat yourself on the back and say, 'Oh, we've got a program, we did something.' "

 

For example, Bishop wants to hand the states more control over the 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund, a federal program funded by oil and gas drilling royalties that must be reauthorized by the end of the year. The initiative has received its full $900 million funding level only once and has received about $300 million in recent years.