Congress OKs Clark County land-use plan

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Oct. 18, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Congress stamped its final approval on a comprehensive land-use plan for Clark County during a frenzied night of legislative action Thursday.

Both the House and Senate passed the bill before Congress recessed this week in what was the legislative equivalent of a buzzer-beating shot.

The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign in the coming days, maps out a broad plan for federal public lands in Clark County. It designates patches of land around the county amounting to over 440,000 acres as protected wilderness area and releases more than 233,000 acres from wilderness study area status, making it available for broader public use, and in some cases, development.

Nevada lawmakers say the legislation creates a comprehensive blueprint for orderly growth and protecting the environment.

"A product of years of work, this bill will protect our pristine vistas, promote responsible growth, and preserve over 140 years of Nevada water rights law," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said after the legislation passed.

Among other key provisions, the legislation:

The push to pass the bill, which grew out of a year's worth of discussions with a diverse group of interest groups in Nevada, came down to the waning days of the congressional session.

Not wanting to risk political snares next year, Nevada's four lawmakers in Congress in the last two weeks lobbied key House and Senate leaders to put the legislation on the floor for a vote before lawmakers recessed until Election Day.

Gibbons, who authored the House version of the bill, goaded leaders in the GOP-controlled House to move the legislation quickly. They obliged.

On Wednesday night, just moments before the House recessed until an expected post-election "lame duck" session, Gibbons helped arrange to have the House pass the Clark County bill by "unanimous consent," which means no vote was taken.

However, under unanimous consent rules, any lawmaker this week had been free to block the bill from passing, so Gibbons and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., had lobbied the offices of key lawmakers not to object.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., arranged to have the bill pass in the same way at about 10 p.m. Thursday, just prior to the Senate closing up shop until November.

Reid put the Clark County bill on a list of dozens of others passed at the last minute under unanimous consent rules.

Reid and Ensign, too, had worked behind the scenes. Ensign said four Republican senators and three Democrats had placed general "holds" on the bill, a tactic used to gain deal-making leverage for bills they wanted approved.

Reid and Ensign staffers, and the senators themselves, pleaded with aides the seven senators to release the holds, arguing that two years of work had gone into assembling the bill, Ensign said. On Thursday night, Ensign made a pitch to an aide to Minority Leader Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., that the legislation struck a delicate balance between the interests of developers, environmental groups and recreation enthusiasts. In the end the senators released the holds.

"It was a lot of scrambling at the last minute," Ensign said. "These things get so close to dying. We felt like if we didn't get it done yesterday, it may not go. To have to start again next year is tough."

Reid prodded Democrats in both chambers this week, chatting with House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt and House Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi earlier in the week, and then with his own Senate colleagues last night.

"It was close," Reid said.