Representative Mark Amodei’s reckless lands bill strips billions from Nevada schools and water conservation
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement after Representative Amodei (R-Nev.-02) and House Republicans snuck one of the single biggest sell-offs of Nevada public lands in history into their reconciliation bill.
“In the dead of night, Representative Mark Amodei pushed House Republicans to move forward with an insane plan that cuts funding from water conservation and public schools across Nevada,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “This is a land grab to fund Republicans ‘billionaire giveaway tax bill, and I’ll fight it with everything I have.”
Last night during a session of the House Natural Resources Committee, Representative Amodei, without consulting any of the Nevada delegation, forced the inclusion of language in the Republicans’ upcoming billionaire-tax cut bill that would sell up to 200,000 acres of public land in Clark County. The bill ignores Nevada’s Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act’s (SNPLMA) consultation provisions and takes money away from conservation, wildfire prevention, and public schools across Nevada, as well as from the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
This will shortchange billions of dollars in future reveneues from almost every county in Nevada, and the state as a whole. Theses funds will be forever lost instead of helping our communities. It also ignores Cortez Masto’s bipartisan Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, a years-long effort to help Clark County grow, encourage affordable housing, and protect 2 million acres for conservation.
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