Idaho senator takes a shot at Nevada land bill

Mark D. Preston

Thursday, June 25, 1998 | 11:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The latest skirmish in the border war between Nevada and Idaho reached a new level Wednesday when Sen. Larry Craig made an apparent threat to block legislation that would help control growth in the Las Vegas Valley.

Craig, R-Idaho, told fellow members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee he would not prevent a Nevada-specific land bill from reaching the Senate floor, but reserved the right to debate the negative financial effect it might have on the federal government.

"I understand the problems of good available land, but I do believe this could be subject to a budget point of order on the floor," Craig said.

The Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act would allow for the sale of 20,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, with the proceeds staying within the state to purchase environmentally fragile land. It also institutes a competitive bidding process for land sales to ensure the highest price when BLM land is sold. The committee released the bill, and it now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

Craig is one of the main proponents of legislation that would have created an interim storage site in Nevada for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. He also is pushing to expand the Mountain Home U.S. Air Force Base located in southwestern Idaho into Northern Nevada.

Members of Nevada's congressional delegation united to stop the interim waste bill in early June and the state's two senators are opposing Mountain Home's expansion. The relationship between Craig and some members of Nevada's congressional delegation is less than amicable.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who introduced the bill, dismissed Craig's remarks and said he thinks the Idaho Republican was just sending Nevada a message by "shooting an arrow across our bow.

"I think he was just tweaking our nose a bit," Bryan said. "If he was trying some mischief, he would have prevented the (bill) from getting out of committee."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the bill's cosponsor said he, too, thinks the legislation will pass this year and be signed into law by President Clinton. A similar bill introduced by Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., and cosponsored by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., passed the House earlier this year.

Bryan said he is not sure when the bill will be taken up, but it won't be next week. The Senate will adjourn at the end of this week and return to Washington July 6.