Northern Nevada lands bill passes House, heads to Senate

By Amber Phillips

Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 | 4:34 p.m.

A sweeping lands bill for Northern Nevada that had a bleak outlook just a few months ago passed the House of Representatives with unanimous support Monday.

Thought for dead much of this year, legislation to create up to 71,500 acres of wilderness and set up 23,000 more for economic development passed the House quickly and easily.

“Thank you to the House of Representatives for passing this bill,” said Rep. Mark Amodei, a Republican representing Northern Nevada and co-author of the legislation.

“Something that appears to be a small achievement in the constellation of national politics will mean a lot to Lyon County,” said Rep. Steven Horsford, a Democrat representing North Las Vegas and rural areas northwest including Lyon County and co-author of the legislation.

The rest of Nevada’s delegation sent out statements praising the vote. The bill still must pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law.

The passage is a major accomplishment for Nevada’s delegation, particularly Amodei and Horsford, who spent months negotiating with the House Natural Resources Committee after Republicans changed the bill so much that Democrats — especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — couldn’t support it.

They altered language that would, in effect, prevent Congress from creating anymore wilderness in the future.

If the bill passes the Senate, it means residents in Lyon County, one of the most economically depressed in the state, could benefit from as many as 1,000 jobs from a new copper mine if Congress approves the lands package. In exchange for selling 10,000 acres of federal land to the city of Yerington for the mine, the bill creates wilderness in the Wokova Forest.

Lands bills have been tricky in the Republican-controlled House, in part because some conservatives oppose the transferring of or creation of federal land. It’s also not clear the bill could pass the Senate, for the same reason. Horsford said in an interview the unanimous vote Monday could give the bill momentum in the Senate.

But Nevada lawmakers have been determined to find a compromise. Amodei, Horsford and Nevada’s senators negotiated behind the scenes to find a deal.

A unanimous committee vote in July for the legislation was evidence they had found one — but in the unpredictable world that is Congress, no one in Nevada’s delegation is exhaling yet.

“I’m not happy until I see it passed by both chambers and signed by the president,” Horsford told the Sun in July. "I'm a little happier tonight," he said Monday.