The problems caused by Federal control of land and its acquisition are a lot worse than local traffic problems.

He has been openly pushing for maximizing funding of new Federal acquisitions of private property through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

LWCF was established in 1965 authorizing the funding of acquisitions by states and Federal agencies up to $900 million per year, subject to annual Congressional appropriations. It was renewed a few years ago but only for a few more years. The viros are pushing to make the re-authorization permanent and have been pushing for years to make it an off budget entitlement not subject to Congressional appropriations at all. Zinke is part of this pressure group movement for Federal acquisition.

"Disposing", not, for the most part, "selling" to private ownership, and not to state government. The unowned lands were always supposed to be claimed by settlers using them, including natural resource development like mining. Conservatives demanding state ownership are just as bad in principle as those promoting Federal control. Both are land socialist.

Wild horses.. couldn't drag me away...
Couldn't agree more.

continuation of Trump eyes Montana’s Zinke as secretary of Interior

Trump could also terminate a January 15 order from secretary of Interior Sally Jewell establishing a partial moratorium on the leasing of federal coal while a programmatic EIS is prepared.

The Republican strategy would likely rely on a law called the Congressional Review Act that authorizes the House and Senate to revoke with a simple majority vote any rule enacted within the last 60 “legislative” days.

According to an analysis prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) after the election, that may apply to any regulation issued as early as May 30 of this year.

Said the service, “The estimated start of the reset period for all rules was determined by counting back from the projected sine die adjournment in the respective chambers ­ 60 days of session in the Senate and 60 legislative days in the House ­ then taking the earlier of the two dates. Under this calculation, it is estimated by CRS that agency final rules submitted to Congress after May 30, 2016, will be subject to renewed review periods in 2017 by President Trump and the 115th Congress.”

The Congressional Research Service report is available at:
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/IN10....

In addition to the Congressional Review Act, on November 17 the House approved a separate bill (HR 5982) that would allow Congress to revoke any rule issued during the last year. The Senate did not act on the measure but Congress may be tempted to take it up again next year.

Revocation of those regulations is child’s play compared to a recommendation House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) reportedly forwarded to the Trump transition team December 5. Bishop said that President Trump should roll back noxious national monument designations (see following article.)

His immediate target is a widely anticipated designation by President Obama of a Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. But he also told the Utah press that Trump could by executive order reverse the 1996 designation of a 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah by then President Clinton.

But some scholars believe a President would have no such reversal authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Congressional Research Service said in its report:

“No President has ever abolished or revoked a national monument proclamation, so the existence or scope of any such authority has not been tested in courts. However, some legal analyses since at least the 1930s have concluded that the Antiquities Act, by its terms, does not authorize the President to repeal proclamations, and that the President also lacks implied authority to do so.”

At least one candidate for the boss of a line agency has come forward – Utah House Rules Chairman Michael E. Noel (R) as BLM director. Noel is a champion of the campaign in Utah to have 31 million acres of federal land transferred to the state.

For all the commotion about the transition, little is still being said about substantive outdoor policy. The one thing Trump does advocate is energy development, particularly from the federal lands. He promises to unleash oil, gas, coal and oil shale producers on the public lands. Zinke may fit that ambition.

Almost certainly the top Trump priorities – lower taxes, more infrastructure spending, more Defense spending – would require massive spending reductions for domestic programs, including the public lands.

While the nation’s focus was on the Presidential contest in the November 8 elections, 17 Senate seats were on the ballot and early results indicated that Republicans had retained a majority of 52-to-48. Among key Senate and House committee and subcommittee chairmen and ranking Democratic minority members, almost all are expected to be back. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was the most influential park and rec policy senator up for re-election and she won with ease.