Wednesday, June 24, 1998 | 3:45 a.m.
The bill, approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, now goes to the Senate floor. It calls for a competitive bidding process to ensure the highest return for the land.
"No other bill in Congress will do more to improve quality of life in Nevada than this bill," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. "Growth is the number one issue of concern in Southern Nevada and this bill does something about it."
Bryan said past growth has been beneficial but has also been haphazard, often leaving local governments out of the equation.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill puts the public back into the public lands process. He said it calls for the orderly disposal of public lands in Southern Nevada and provides for acquisition of environmentally sensitive lands in the state.
The Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act would allow local officials to take a more pro-active role in federal land disposal decisions. And it would institute a competitive bidding process to ensure that BLM land sales yield a fair market value.
Under the bill, the land sales would be divided among federal, state and local governments.
The federal share would be used to acquire environmentally sensitive lands while the state share would go to fund education programs. The local share would be used by the Southern Nevada Water Authority for water treatment and infrastructure development.
A similar bill, introduced by Reps. John Ensign and Jim Gibbons, both R-Nev., passed the House earlier this year.
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