A united U.S. Senate votes for conservation

The spotlight in Washington, D.C., might be on whether a compromise over a southern border wall and other security measures will be enough to prevent a second shutdown of federal government. But that’s hardly all that is happening in Congress right now.

Earlier this week, a bipartisan Senate passed major conservation legislation, the Natural Resources Management Act.

This legislation is good news for New Mexico, with Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich deserving credit for ensuring that issues of importance to New Mexico were included, advocating for what the people of the state have made clear they support — protection for our public lands. What’s more, the legislation is good not just for what is in it, but for how it was negotiated.

As the Washington Post described it, the act — which passed 92-8 — “represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide.”

While the bill provides protection for public lands and supports conservation efforts — ironic in the age of President Donald Trump, who seldom met a piece of dirt he did not want to exploit — the Congressional Budget Office also projects the legislation will save $9 million for taxpayers. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives supports the bill, and White House officials privately have indicated the president likely will sign it. A bipartisan victory for all Americans is in sight.

In the measure is essential wilderness protection for some 1.3 million acres of land across the nation. This means the prohibition of roads and motorized vehicles, as befitting the strictest protection for public lands. It also would withdraw some 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks — including grand old Yellowstone — and permanently approve a program to spend offshore drilling revenue around two national parks. Yes, the Land and Water Conservation Fund — which has supported so many projects in rural and urban areas, including all 33 New Mexico counties — is back and funded.

For New Mexico, the legislation will create some 273,000 acres of wilderness in 13 new areas within New Mexico — 10 are within the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces and two within the Río Grande del Norte National Monument in our neck of the woods. This is the most New Mexico acreage to be designated wilderness in a single year since 1980. All proposals are broadly supported by local communities.

The pattern of how the bill came together is something that could be replicated on other issues. Local advocates made their wishes known to individual lawmakers, who then placed specific measures in the broader bill. The breadth and depth of support from the ground up made passage possible. There was little bipartisan discord, because every lawmaker had a dog in the fight.

Included in the legislation are such important measures as the reauthorization and funding for the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, providing habitat protection for more than 380 bird species. The bill also codifies a signature program from President Barack Obama, the Every Kid Outdoors Act allowing U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks for free.

Heinrich was a key backer of this portion of the bill, along with GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Udall was one of several Senate co-sponsors, too. Another success for Udall in the bill: His 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act of 2019 was included and seeks to reinvigorate the nation’s conservation service corps. This was a measure supported by the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a Republican, with Heinrich also one of several co-sponsors. Bipartisanship in action, plus teamwork from New Mexico’s senators.

Senators were not the only New Mexico lawmakers backing various provisions that made it into the final bill. U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham worked on the House side in recent years to support conservation and protections for public lands, particularly the wilderness designations in the Río Grande del Norte National Monument. Some provisions protecting wilderness in Southern New Mexico date to 2009, when then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced them.

Over the years, the many advocacy groups learned to compromise. That’s another road map for how to build legislation of a bipartisan nature. Give up some points. Include local provisions with broad support. Listen to the other side. And always think of what’s good for the nation even if you don’t support every detail of the wider legislation. Putting public lands first is bringing Congress together. Now, let’s build on that success and get back to governing.