Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Congress did not approve $9.3 million for a Lake Mead water and sewer line project requested by the Interior Department as part of a department spending bill approved last week.
Lawmakers instead directed the department to dip into the profits generated by public land sales in Clark County under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, a move that sparked protests from Nevada officials.
Under the act, federal public land is sold at auction, with the profits to benefit Nevada water, education and land conservation and improvement programs.
Projects such as the Lake Mead project "should" be funded from the land sale money, not through regular congressional appropriations, the bill says.
But Nevada lawmakers plan to formally object. They say it was not the intent of the 1998 law, written largely by Nevada lawmakers, to use profits from the land sales for projects like the Lake Mead water and sewer repairs.
"We're going to continue to lobby to make sure the federal government doesn't shirk its responsibilities for funding the operation of federal lands, projects and buildings in the state of Nevada," said Amy Maier, spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.
Nevada lawmakers also question whether it would even be legal under the 1998 law to use land sale money for a project like the one at Lake Mead.
"It doesn't fall under the intent of SNPLMA," said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "They (Interior Department) have a responsibility to places like Lake Mead."
National Park Service spokesman David Barna today said department lawyers were currently reviewing whether the 1998 law allows the agency to use land sale money for the Lake Mead project.
The bill language is essentially a recommendation and non-binding, but the Interior Department has discretion over whether to pursue the land sale profits as a way to pay for the Lake Mead project.
Money for the Lake Mead project should be taken from federal coffers just like it is for similar Interior Department projects in other states, said Jack Finn, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
Ensign plans to talk to Interior Secretary Gale Norton about the issue. But Norton, too, has said some of the money should be used to pay down the deficit.
Lawmakers are envious of the land sale fund, in part because the public land auctions have generated more cash than anyone expected, more than $2 billion. But that doesn't make the fund "a free pot of money" to be used for projects outside the intent of the 1998 law, Finn said.
House Republican managers of the Interior bill inserted the language recommending that the Lake Mead project be paid for with land sale money. It was a backdoor method for them to get at the money, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said.
"Why should Nevada be treated in a different manner than the other 49 states when it comes to water projects?" Berkley asked.
But a House Appropriations Committee spokesman today say there was nothing backdoor about it. Bill managers noted that there would be $1 billion in land sale revenue available in the next fiscal year, 85 percent of which is available to the Interior Department for Nevada projects, panel spokesman John Scofield said.
"The language is a strong suggestion to the department to fund projects with the ample dollars available through land sales rather than scarce appropriations," he said.
The law has created tension as Bush administration officials and lawmakers in Congress have watched the Nevada land sale profits swell. Bush recommended that 70 percent of the money be funneled to the U.S. Treasury, arguing that federal land sales should benefit federal taxpayers. Nevada officials have vigorously defended the state's right under the current law to keep all the money in Nevada.
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