Transfer of Public Lands Summary

Why the Difference??

Myth #1 “Your Land is Arid/Rugged”

Myth #2 “You Gave Up Your Lands” OR “These Lands Belong to All of Us”

Myth #3 “You Can’t Manage These Lands”

Myth #4 “It’s Unconstitutional” to demand that Congress transfer our lands

Tab 1 Tab 2

Tab 3 Tab 4

Did We Really Give Up Our Lands?

Some say that in our Enabling Acts (or Constitutions for some States) we gave up our lands at statehood because it says:

“That the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States”

The Problem: This is Nebraska’s Enabling Act It has 1% Public Lands today!And, it’s also the same language in the Enabling Acts of:Alabama (2.7% Public Lands)Louisiana (4.6% Public Lands)North Dakota (3.9% Public Lands)South Dakota (5.4% Public Lands), etc.

Transfer of Public Lands

It’s Been Done Before!As much as 90% of all lands in Illinois and Missouri (and AL, LA, AR, IN, FL, etc.) were federally controlled for decades!With so much land under federal control, these States persistently argued they could not:

• adequately fund education, • grow their economies, or • responsibly manage their abundant

resources. They banded together, refused to be silent or take “NO” for an answer, and compelled Congress to transfer title to their lands.In 1959, Congress granted directly to the State of Hawaii (the last and western-most State):

“the United States’ title to all the public lands ... within the boundaries of the State of Hawaii, title to which is held by the United States immediately prior to its admission into the Union.”

It’s The Only Solution Big Enough!

•30-50% of most States’ revenues are federally sourced (CliftonLarsenAllen, LLP Report)

•Federal Finances are “unsustainable” (US GAO)•Under the guise of “sequestration” the federal

government is cutting critical state revenues:• PILT• SRS (even retroactively)• Mineral Lease Royalties

•Federal access and use restrictions impair the value and benefit of school trust lands, and state and private lands

•Federal “no-harvest” forest policies are destroying forests, polluting air, killing millions of animals, and decimating watershed

•There are more than $150 trillion in minerals locked up in federally controlled lands (IER)

•There is “more recoverable oil” in UT, CO, & WY “than the rest of the world combined” (US GAO)

www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org http://www.youtube.com/AmericanLandsCouncil

http://www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org

http://www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org

Tab 1 Why the Difference?? Myth #1 “Your Land is Arid/Rugged” Congress may have been delayed in its duty to “dispose of” the public lands because some (but certainly not all) of the federally controlled public lands are arid and/or rugged, however, it simply does not follow legally or constitutionally that therefore the federal government keeps all of this land. “The public-land question is older than the Nation.” (Thomas Maddock, 1931 Address to Western Governors attached to the 1932 Congressional Record on Granting Remaining Unreserved Public Lands to States). The federal government only holds bare legal title to the public lands “for temporary purposes, and to execute the trusts,” as the U.S. Supreme Court stated, which were created by agreement of the States as far back as 1780. This trust or, “solemn compact,” obligation of Congress to dispose of the public lands was repeatedly reaffirmed in the unique Enabling Act (or constitution) language of virtually all new states, both east and west of Colorado. This more than 200-year-old obligation of Congress to “dispose of” the public lands goes far beyond simply selling the public lands if it is able. Homestead laws were just one of many means by which Congress disposed of the public lands, including granting public lands directly to the States as it did with Hawaii, Michigan and others. President Andrew Jackson provides one of the best, contemporaneous summaries of this historical and constitutional obligation of Congress to dispose of the public lands in an 1833 veto statement included here as Attachment A and also available at the “Resources” tab at www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org. Myth #2 “You Gave Up Your Lands” OR “These Lands Belong to All of Us” This myth is refuted by the fact that states east of Colorado have the same unique “forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands” language in their enabling acts and yet they banded together and compelled Congress to transfer their public lands that it had delayed in disposing of for many decades. (See Tab 2 for more on this). This myth is also dispelled by the fact that in 1932 Congress relented to the persistent demand of the public land States and convened hearings for the purpose of “Granting Remaining Unreserved Public Lands to States.” However, the bills most in consideration only proposed to transfer the surface rights to the States and not the minerals. The States flatly rejected this inequitable proposal that would violate the duty of Congress to dispose of all rights within the boundaries of each state not expressly reserved at statehood. As a result of the stalemate, Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934 merely as a stopgap measure. As expressed in the very first line of the Act, it was passed "In order to promote the highest use of the public lands pending its final disposal." As explained in connection with Myth #4, in 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that Congress does not have the authority by a subsequent, unilateral policy to alter or diminish “the uniquely sovereign character of [a state’s] admission” particularly where “virtually all of a State’s public lands are at stake.” Myth #3 “You Can’t Manage These Lands” The various state proposals for the transfer of the public lands do not include a transfer to the States of national parks or other lands with protected status. Nevertheless, some say that states can’t manage - or can’t afford to manage - the public lands if they are turned over to the states. Utah Governor Gary Herbert dispelled this illogical, tired myth on behalf of all western governors and states in recent testimony to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Natural

Resources, stating, “We know how to manage … and certainly would be a good example for here in Washington. That being said, the resources that come off the public lands are about $450 million a year. The expense being put into the resources in Utah is about $219 million a year. So, with the additional $225 million we would certainly have the money to do it. I would argue that we are closer to the land. We have certainly the same motivation and interest of protecting it as part of our tourism and travel business. We would just spend the money more efficiently, more effectively, and get a better bang for the buck. We certainly can do it. We would have the resources to do it if, in fact, those lands were returned to Utah for management.”

Myth #4 “It’s Unconstitutional” This same effort has already been done successfully by states like Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. Congress had refused for decades to dispose of as much as 90% of their lands that were federally controlled public lands. (See Tab 3). The Enabling Act terms of today’s western states pertaining to the disposal of our public lands are in all material respects the same as theirs. How is it “unconstitutional” for today’s western states to band together to compel Congress to honor the same statehood promise to transfer our public lands as it already kept with Hawaii and all states east of Colorado? The Federalist Society, an organization of more than 40,000 constitutionally focused lawyers, commissioned a Legal Analysis of HB148 - Utah’s Transfer of Public Lands Act (“TPLA”). In summary, this recent Legal Analysis finds the TPLA is distinct from prior state efforts to resolve the issue of federal control over more than 50% of all lands in the West. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the contracts of statehood, like the Utah Enabling Act (“UEA”), are “solemn bilateral compacts” between sovereigns that are serious and enforceable. Read as a whole, the plain language of the UEA reflects not just a duty on the part of Utah to give clean title to the federal government (i.e. “forever disclaim all right and title”) but also a duty on the part of the federal government to timely dispose of the public lands (“until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States) – otherwise, Utah would never realize its benefit of its bargain in this “solemn agreement” – a part of the proceeds of sale directly to fund education and the ability to tax and otherwise generate revenues from the lands to pay for essential public services. A short Executive Summary of the Legal Analysis is included here as Attachment B. The full Legal Analysis can be downloaded at the “Resources” tab at www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org. Also included as Attachment C is a recent article from the Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law entitled No Laughing Matter: Utah’s Fight to Reclaim Federal Lands. Legislation to actively explore the Transfer of Public Lands has now passed in five states (ID, MT, NV, UT, and WY). The South Carolina Assembly also passed a Resolution supporting the transfer of public lands to willing western states. Additional legal questions regarding these TPL efforts may also be directed to: Anthony Rampton, Assistant Utah Attorney General - 801.537.9819 - [email protected] Professor Donald Kochan - 714.628.2618 - [email protected]

Tab 2 Did We Really Give Up Our Lands? No! First, it makes no sense that the founders of our respective states would have bargained for perpetual federal control over as much as 90% (Nevada) of the lands within our states. Second, those who make, repeat, or tolerate this claim generally do so on the false assertion that the Enabling Acts and/or constitutions of only the western states contain the language that they “forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands…” and that this “disclaimer” means western states meant to just give up their lands forever. Third, the same “forever disclaim” language is in the enabling acts of many states east of Colorado where their public lands have been disposed of. Included as Attachment D is a side-by-side comparison of the pertinent Enabling Act terms for Nevada vs. Nebraska, and Utah vs. North Dakota relating to the disposal of the public lands. The terms are virtually identical yet Nebraska went from nearly 25% public lands just after statehood to 1% today, while Nevada is still nearly 90% federally controlled. Fourth, the following excerpts from the Legal Analysis commissioned by the Federalist Society (included as Attachment B, at Tab 1) addresses the problems with such a shallow analysis based on half a sentence out of context:

The “forever disclaim” language of section 3 leads some to believe that Utah’s case for upholding the TPLA is a dead letter. However, reading this section in context shows that the parties anticipate that title will at some point be extinguished (the “until the title thereto shall have been extinguished” language together with the discussion of “disposition”, i.e. disposal). The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected such narrow contract interpretations that seek to look at “a part only” or “a single sentence.” Section 3 reflects the bargained-for purpose of the UEA: The federal government needed clean and certain title to public lands so that it could readily dispose of these properties to willing buyers for the highest price possible which directly benefited the state of Utah because it was to receive a percentage of such sales under Section 9 to fund education and would thereafter be able to tax the lands disposed of. Thus, Utah had a selfish interest in wanting the federal government to have certain title because it increased the state’s own gains under the agreement. Consider Section 9 of the UEA, which provides: SEC. 9. That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State, which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest of which only shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State. The express language of Section 9 entitles the State to proceeds from disposals. This means that the State is invested in and relying upon the existence of disposal, which, in consideration for this percentage of the proceeds, the State agreed to help facilitate disposals by disclaiming rights to the unappropriated lands so as to give the federal government the valuable commodity of certain title attached to the property disposed of.

Tab 3 It’s Been Done Before! Examples of several of the Resolutions by states like Illinois, Missouri and others, and reports by and to the Congressional Public Lands Committee in compelling Congress to honor the terms of their statehood and timely dispose of their public lands can be found at this link: http://www.americanlandscouncil.org/quick-fact--5-congress-and-eastern-states-made-the-case.html These states argued they would struggle to fund education, responsibly develop abundant resources, and grow local, state, and national economies if the federal government refused to honor their statehood compacts for the timely disposal of their public lands. From the historical records, it appears they were successful in compelling Congress to dispose of their public lands because (i) they knew the history of Congress’ disposal obligation, (ii) they understood their corresponding rights for disposal of their public lands, (iii) they banded together, and (iv) they were united and persistent in their demands that the terms of statehood in the disposal of their public lands be honored in a timely fashion. Their efforts resulted in the passage of the Graduated Price Act of 1854. Today, these states have on average less than 5% federally controlled lands. The pertinent language of the Hawaii Enabling Act provides that the federal government granted directly to the State of Hawaii “the United States’ title to all the public lands and other public property within the boundaries of the State of Hawaii, title to which is held by the United States immediately prior to its admission into the Union.” The federal government made other outright grants directly to states including over 13 million acres granted directly to the State of Michigan in fulfillment of Congress’ duty to dispose of the public lands.

Tab 4 It’s The Only Solution Big Enough! For most western states, federal funds comprise the single largest source of state revenues - 30-50% of most States’ revenues are federally sourced according to “A Study of Key Dependency Measures for the 50 States” CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP (excerpts are included as Attachment E). However, the U.S. Government Accountability Office regularly remarks that federal finances are “unsustainable.” Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen warned that the national debt “is the greatest threat to national security.” U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in a recent discussion on the future of the PILT and SRS programs in the Senate Natural Resources Committee said, “The federal government is broke here. We can't continue to pay counties to not utilize the lands within their boundaries. … You need to be able to access the resources that are on your lands. We either need to utilize our federal lands to generate the revenue and the jobs for our rural communities or we should divest the federal government of those lands and let the states or the counties, or boroughs manage them." (Sen. Murkowki’s comments can be seen at the American Lands Council YouTube Channel). Under the guise of “sequestration” the federal government is cutting critical state revenues:

• PILT • SRS (together with retroactive clawbacks) • Mineral Lease Royalties (Reduced from approximately 48%. States east of Colorado

control access to their mineral resources and retain 100% of their mineral royalties yet have the same terms of statehood for the disposal of their public lands as today’s public land states.)

According to a 2012 FBI Criminal Activity alert, federal “no-harvest” forest policies are endangering our forests (See Attachment F) as Al Qaeda is publishing throughout its networks that our forests have become high-leverage weapons for jihad. Wildfires are increasing in acreage, cost and intensity, polluting air, killing millions of animals, and decimating watershed for decades. According to a recent Institute for Energy Research report, there are more than $150 trillion in minerals locked up in federally controlled lands. (Attachment G). And, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, UT, CO, & WY have “more recoverable oil than the rest of the world combined.” (Attachment H) Attachment I is an excerpt from an address delivered to the Western Governors Association in 1931 (also included in the congressional record for the 1932 hearings on Granting Remaining Unreserved Public Lands to the States) on how to compel Congress to honor to the western states the same promise to transfer title to the public to that it already kept with all states east of Colorado.

Attachment J is a copy of the Resolution of the South Carolina Assembly supporting the transfer of public lands to western states. Attachment K contains generic Resolutions, along with specific resolutions from various groups, supporting the transfer of public lands and encouraging/demanding state and congressional representatives to exert their utmost abilities to compel Congress to honor the same promise to western states that it already kept with Hawaii and all states east of Colorado. President John F. Kennedy’s best-selling book, “Profiles in Courage,” features U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton (D-M). Sen. Benton is nearly single-handedly responsible for compelling Congress to dispose of the public lands in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and many other states, whose lands were as much as 90% federally controlled for decades. Attachment L is a brief history written by Sen. Benton on this matter and the need for “members in Congress from the new States [to] not intermit their exertions, nor vary their policy; and [to] fix their eyes steadily upon the period of the speedy extinction of the federal title to all the lands within the limits of their respective States …”

Land Bill Veto Message December 4, 1833

Andrew Jackson

To the Senate of the United States:

At the close of the last session of Congress I received from that body a bill entitled "An act to appropriate for a limited time the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States and for granting lands to certain States." The brief period then remaining before the rising of Congress and the extreme pressure of official duties unavoidable on such occasions did not leave me sufficient time for that full consideration of the subject which was due to its great importance. Subsequent consideration and reflection have, however, confirmed the objections to the bill which presented themselves to my mind upon its first perusal, and have satisfied me that it ought not to become a law. I felt myself, therefore, constrained to withhold from it my approval, and now return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with the reasons on which my dissent is founded.

* Pocket veto.

I am fully sensible of the importance, as it respects both the harmony and union of the States, of making, as soon as circumstances will allow of it, a proper and final disposition of the whole subject of the public lands, and any measure for that object providing for the reimbursement to the United States of those expenses with which they are justly chargeable that may be consistent with my views of the Constitution, sound policy, and the rights of the respective States will readily receive my cooperation. This bill, however, is not of that character. The arrangement it contemplates is not permanent, but limited to five years only, and in its terms appears to anticipate alterations within that time, at the discretion of Congress; and it furnishes no adequate security against those continued agitations of the subject which it should be the principal object of any measure for the disposition of the public lands to avert.

Neither the merits of the bill under consideration nor the validity of the objections which I have felt it to be my duty to make to its passage can be correctly appreciated without a full understanding of the manner in which the public lands upon which it is intended to operate were acquired and the conditions upon which they are now held by the United States. I will therefore precede the statement of those objections by a brief but distinct exposition of these points.

The waste lands within the United States constituted one of the early obstacles to the organization of any government for the protection of their common interests. In October, 1777, while Congress were framing the Articles of Confederation, a proposition was made to amend them to the following effect, viz:

That the United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to ascertain and fix the western boundary of such States as claim to the Mississippi or South Sea, and lay out the land beyond the

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment A

boundary so ascertained into separate and independent States from time to time as the numbers and circumstances of the people thereof may require.

It was, however, rejected, Maryland only voting for it, and so difficult did the subject appear that the patriots of that body agreed to waive it in the Articles of Confederation and leave it for future settlement.

On the submission of the Articles to the several State legislatures for ratification the most formidable objection was found to be in this subject of the waste lands. Maryland, Rhode Island, and New Jersey instructed their delegates in Congress to move amendments to them providing that the waste or Crown lands should be considered the common property of the United States, but they were rejected. All the States except Maryland acceded to the Articles, notwithstanding some of them did so with the reservation that their claim to those lands as common property was not thereby abandoned.

On the sole ground that no declaration to that effect was contained in the Articles, Maryland withheld her assent, and in May, 1779, embodied her objections in the form of instructions to her delegates, which were entered upon the Journals of Congress. The following extracts are from that document, viz:

Is it possible that those States who are ambitiously grasping at territories to which in our judgment they have not the least shadow of exclusive right will use with greater moderation the increase of wealth and power derived from those territories when acquired than what they have displayed in their endeavors to acquire them? * * *

We are convinced policy and justice require that a country unsettled at the commencement of this war, claimed by the British Crown and ceded to it by the treaty of Paris, if wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure of the thirteen States, should be considered as a common property, subject to be parceled out by Congress into free, convenient, and independent governments, in such manner and at such times as the wisdom of that assembly shall hereafter direct. * * *

Virginia proceeded to open a land office for the sale of her Western lands, which produced such excitement as to induce Congress, in October, 1779, to interpose and earnestly recommend to "the said State and all States similarly circumstanced to forbear settling or issuing warrants for such unappropriated lands, or granting the same, during the continuance of the present war."

In March, 1780, the legislature of New York passed an act tendering a cession to the United States of the claims of that State to the Western territory, preceded by a preamble to the following effect, viz:

Whereas nothing under Divine Providence can more effectually contribute to the tranquillity and safety of the United States of America than a federal alliance on such liberal principles as will give satisfaction to its respective members; and whereas the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union recommended by the honorable Congress of the United States of America have not proved acceptable to all the States, it having been conceived that a portion of the waste and uncultivated territory within the limits or claims of certain States ought to be appropriated as a common fund for the expenses of the war, and the people of the State of New York being on all occasions disposed to manifest their regard for their sister States and their earnest desire to promote the general interest and security, and more especially to accelerate the federal alliance, by removing as far as it depends upon them the before-mentioned impediment to its final accomplishment. * * *

This act of New York, the instructions of Maryland, and a remonstrance of Virginia were referred to a committee of Congress, who reported a preamble and resolutions thereon, which were adopted on the 6th September, 1780; so much of which as is necessary to elucidate the subject is to the following effect, viz:

That it appears advisable to press upon those States which can remove the embarrassments respecting the Western country a liberal surrender of a portion of their territorial claims, since they can not be preserved entire without

Rebecca Ivory

endangering the stability of the General Confederacy; to remind them how indispensably necessary it is to establish the Federal Union on a fixed and permanent basis and on principles acceptable to all its respective members; how essential to public credit and confidence, to the support of our Army, to the vigor of our counsels and success of our measures, to our tranquillity at home, our reputation abroad, to our very existence as a free, sovereign, and independent people; that they are fully persuaded the wisdom of the several legislatures will lead them to a full and impartial consideration of a subject so interesting to the United States, and so necessary to the happy establishment of the Federal Union; that they are confirmed in these expectations by a review of the before-mentioned act of the legislature of New York, submitted to their consideration. * * *

Resolved , That copies of the several papers referred to the committee be transmitted, with a copy of the report, to the legislatures of the several States, and that it be earnestly recommended to those States who have claims to the Western country to pass such laws and give their delegates in Congress such powers as may effectually remove the only obstacle to a final ratification of the Articles of Confederation, and that the legislature of Maryland be earnestly requested to authorize their delegates in Congress to subscribe the said Articles.

Following up this policy, Congress proceeded, on the 10th October, 1780, to pass a resolution pledging the United States to the several States as to the manner in which any lands that might be ceded by them should be disposed of, the material parts of which are as follows, viz:

Resolved , That the unappropriated lands which may be ceded or relinquished to the United States by any particular State pursuant to the recommendation of Congress of the 6th day of September last shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States and be settled and formed into distinct republican States, which shall become members of the Federal Union and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States; * * * that the said lands shall be granted or settled at such times and under such regulations as shall hereafter be agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled, or nine or more of them.

In February, 1781, the legislature of Maryland passed an act authorizing their delegates in Congress to sign the Articles of Confederation. The following are extracts from the preamble and body of the act, viz:

Whereas it hath been said that the common enemy is encouraged by this State not acceding to the Confederation to hope that the union of the sister States may be dissolved, and therefore prosecutes the war in expectation of an event so disgraceful to America, and our friends and illustrious ally are impressed with an idea that the common cause would be promoted by our formally acceding to the Confederation. * * *

The act of which this is the preamble authorizes the delegates of that State to sign the Articles, and proceeds to declare "that by acceding to the said Confederation this State doth not relinquish, nor intend to relinquish, any right or interest she hath with the other united or confederated States to the back country," etc.

On the 1st of March, 1781, the delegates of Maryland signed the Articles of Confederation, and the Federal Union under that compact was complete. The conflicting claims to the Western lands, however, were not disposed of, and continued to give great trouble to Congress. Repeated and urgent calls were made by Congress upon the States claiming them to make liberal cessions to the United States, and it was not until long after the present Constitution was formed that the grants were completed.

The deed of cession from New York was executed on the 1st of March, 1781, the day the Articles of Confederation were ratified, and it was accepted by Congress on the 29th October, 1782. One of the conditions of this cession thus tendered and accepted was that the lands ceded to the United States " shall be and inure for the use and benefit of such of the United States as shall become members of the federal alliance of the said States, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever."

The Virginia deed of cession was executed and accepted on the 1st day of March, 1784. One of the conditions of this

cession is as follows, viz:

That all the lands within the territory as ceded to the United States, and not reserved for or appropriated to any of the before-mentioned purposes or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American Army, s hall be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become or shall become members of the confederation or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.

Within the years 1785, 1786, and 1787 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina ceded their claims upon similar conditions. The Federal Government went into operation under the existing Constitution on the 4th of March, 1789. The following is the only provision of that Constitution which has a direct bearing on the subject of the public lands, viz:

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States, and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular State.

Thus the Constitution left all the compacts before made in full force, and the rights of all parties remained the same under the new Government as they were under the Confederation.

The deed of cession of North Carolina was executed in December, 1789, and accepted by an act of Congress approved April 2, 1790. The third condition of this cession was in the following words, viz:

That all the lands intended to be ceded by virtue of this act to the United States of America, and not appropriated as before mentioned, shall be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of the United States of America, North Carolina inclusive. according go their respective and usual proportions of the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatever.

The cession of Georgia was completed on the 16th June, 1802, and in its leading condition is precisely like that of Virginia and North Carolina. This grant completed the title of the United States to all those lands generally called public lands lying within the original limits of the Confederacy. Those which have been acquired by the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, having been paid for out of the common treasure of the United States, are as much the property of the General Government, to be disposed of for the common benefit, as those ceded by the several States.

By the facts here collected from the early history of our Republic it appears that the subject of the public lands entered into the elements of its institutions. It was only upon the condition that those lands should be considered as common property, to be disposed of for the benefit of the United States, that some of the States agreed to come into a "perpetual union." The States claiming those lands acceded to those views and transferred their claims to the United States upon certain specific conditions, and on those conditions the grants were accepted. These solemn compacts, invited by Congress in a resolution declaring the purposes to which the proceeds of these lands should be applied, originating before the Constitution and forming the basis on which it was made, bound the United States to a particular course of policy in relation to them by ties as strong as can be invented to secure the faith of nations.

As early as May, 1785, Congress, in execution of these compacts, passed an ordinance providing for the sales of lands in the Western territory and directing the proceeds to be paid into the Treasury of the United States. With the same object other ordinances were adopted prior to the organization of the present Government,

In further execution of these compacts the Congress of the United States under the present Constitution, as early as the 4th of August, 1790, in "An act making provision for the debt of the United States," enacted as follows, viz:

That the proceeds of sales which shall be made of lands in the Western territory now belonging or that may hereafter belong to the United States shall be and are hereby appropriated toward sinking or discharging the debts for the payment whereof the United States now are or by virtue of this act may be holden, and shall be applied solely to that use until the said debt shall be fully satisfied.

To secure to the Government of the United States forever the power to execute these compacts in good faith the Congress of the Confederation, as early as July 13, 1787, in an ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, prescribed to the people inhabiting the Western territory certain conditions which were declared to be "articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory," which should "forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent." In one of these articles it is declared that--

The legislatures of those districts, or new States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers.

This condition has been exacted from the people of all the new territories, and to put its obligation beyond dispute each new State carved out of the public domain has been required explicitly to recognize it as one of the conditions of admission into the Union. Some of them have declared through their conventions in separate acts that their people "forever disclaim all right and title to the waste and unappropriated lands lying within this State, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States."

With such care have the United States reserved to themselves, in all their acts down to this day, in legislating for the Territories and admitting States into the Union, the unshackled power to execute in good faith the compacts of cession made with the original States. From these facts and proceedings it plainly and certainly results--

1. That one of the fundamental principles on which the Confederation of the United States was originally based was that the waste lands of the West within their limits should be the common property of the United States.

2. That those lands were ceded to the United States by the States which claimed them, and the cessions were accepted on the express condition that they should be disposed of for the common benefit of the States, according to their respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and for no other purpose whatsoever.

3. That in execution of these solemn compacts the Congress of the United States did, under the Confederation, proceed to sell these lands and put the avails into the common Treasury, and under the new Constitution did repeatedly pledge them for the payment of the public debt of the United States, by which pledge each State was expected to profit in proportion to the general charge to be made upon it for that object.

These are the first principles of this whole subject, which I think can not be contested by anyone who examines the proceedings of the Revolutionary Congress, the cessions of the several States, and the acts of Congress under the new Constitution. Keeping them deeply impressed upon the mind, let us proceed to examine how far the objects of the cessions have been completed, and see whether those compacts are not still obligatory upon the United States.

The debt for which these lands were pledged by Congress may be considered as paid, and they are consequently released from that lien. But that pledge formed no part of the compacts with the States, or of the conditions upon which the cessions were made. It was a contract between new parties--between the United States and their creditors. Upon payment of the debt the compacts remain in full force, and the obligation of the United States to dispose of the lands for the common benefit is neither destroyed nor impaired. As they can not now be executed in that mode, the only legitimate question which can arise is, In what other way are these lands to be hereafter disposed of for the common benefit of the several States, " according to their respective and usual proportion in the general charge and expenditure"? The cessions of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia in express terms, and all the rest impliedly, not

only provide thus specifically the proportion according to which each State shall profit by the proceeds of the land sales, but they proceed to declare that they shall be "faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." This is the fundamental law of the land at this moment, growing out of compacts which are older than the Constitution, and formed the corner stone on which the Union itself was erected.

In the practice of the Government the proceeds of the public lands have not been set apart as a separate fund for the payment of the public debt, but have been and are now paid into the Treasury, where they constitute a part of the aggregate of revenue upon which the Government draws as well for its current expenditures as for payment of the public debt. In this manner they have heretofore and do now lessen the general charge upon the people of the several States in the exact proportions stipulated in the compacts.

These general charges have been composed not only of the public debt and the usual expenditures attending the civil and military administrations of the Government, but of the amounts paid to the States with which these compacts were formed, the amounts paid the Indians for their right of possession, the amounts paid for the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, and the amounts paid surveyors, registers, receivers, clerks, etc., employed in preparing for market and selling the Western domain.

From the origin of the land system down to the 30th September, 1832, the amount expended for all these purposes has been about $49,701,280, and the amount received from the sales, deducting payments on account of roads, etc., about $38,386,624. The revenue arising from the public lands, therefore, has not been sufficient to meet the general charges on the Treasury which have grown out of them by about $11,314,656. Yet in having been applied to lessen those charges the conditions of the compacts have been thus far fulfilled, and each State has profited according to its usual proportion in the general charge and expenditure. The annual proceeds of land sales have increased and the charges have diminished, so that at a reduced price those lands would now defray all current charges growing out of them and save the Treasury from further advances on their account. Their original intent and object, therefore, would be accomplished as fully as it has hitherto been by reducing the price and hereafter, as heretofore, bringing the proceeds into the Treasury. Indeed, as this is the only mode in which the objects of the original compact can be attained, it may be considered for all practical purposes that it is one of their requirements.

The bill before me begins with an entire subversion of every one of the compacts by which the United States became possessed of their Western domain, and treats the subject as if they never had existence and as if the United States were the original and unconditional owners of all the public lands. The first section directs--

That from and after the 31st day of December, 1832, there shall be allowed and paid to each of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana, over and above what each of the said States is entitled to by the terms of the compacts entered into between them respectively upon their admission into the Union and the United States, the sum of 12 1/2 per cent upon the net amount of the sales of the public lands which subsequent to the day aforesaid shall be made within the several limits of the said States, which said sum of 12 1/2 per cent shall be applied to some object or objects of internal improvement or education within the said States under the direction of their several legislatures.

This 12 1/2 per cent is to be taken out of the net proceeds of the land sales before any apportionment is made, and the same seven States which are first to receive this proportion are also to receive their due proportion of the residue according to the ratio of general distribution.

Now, waiving all considerations of equity or policy in regard to this provision, what more need be said to demonstrate its objectionable character than that it is in direct and undisguised violation of the pledge given by Congress to the States before a single cession was made, that it abrogates the condition upon which some of the States came into the Union, and that it sets at naught the terms of cession spread upon the face of every grant under which the title to that portion of the public land is held by the Federal Government?

In the apportionment of the remaining seven-eighths of the proceeds this bill, in a manner equally undisguised, violates the conditions upon which the United States acquired title to the ceded lands. Abandoning altogether the ratio of distribution according to the general charge and expenditure provided by the compacts, it adopts that of the Federal representative population. Virginia and other States which ceded their lands upon the express condition that they should receive a benefit from their sales in proportion to their part of the general charge are by the bill allowed only a portion of seven-eighths of their proceeds, and that not in the proportion of general charge and expenditure, but in the ratio of their Federal representative population.

The Constitution of the United States did not delegate to Congress the power to abrogate these compacts. On the contrary, by declaring that nothing in it " shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular State," it virtually provides that these compacts and the rights they secure shall remain untouched by the legislative power, which shall only make all "needful rules and regulations" for carrying them into effect. All beyond this would seem to be an assumption of undelegated power.

These ancient compacts are invaluable monuments of an age of virtue, patriotism, and disinterestedness. They exhibit the price that great States which had won liberty were willing to pay for that union without which they plainly saw it could not be preserved. It was not for territory or state power that our Revolutionary fathers took up arms; it was for individual liberty and the right of self-government. The expulsion from the continent of British armies and British power was to them a barren conquest if through the collisions of the redeemed States the individual rights for which they fought should become the prey of petty military tyrannies established at home. To avert such consequences and throw around liberty the shield of union, States whose relative strength at the time gave them a preponderating power magnanimously sacrificed domains which would have made them the rivals of empires, only stipulating that they should be disposed of for the common benefit of themselves and the other confederated States. This enlightened policy produced union and has secured liberty. It has made our waste lands to swarm with a busy people and added many powerful States to our Confederation. As well for the fruits which these noble works of our ancestors have produced as for the devotedness in which they originated, we should hesitate before we demolish them.

But there are other principles asserted in the bill which would have impelled me to withhold my signature had I not seen in it a violation of the compacts by which the United States acquired title to a large portion of the public lands. It reasserts the principle contained in the bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, from which I was compelled to withhold my consent for reasons contained in my message of the 27th May, 1830, to the House of Representatives.

The leading principle then asserted was that Congress possesses no constitutional power to appropriate any part of the moneys of the United States for objects of a local character within the States. That principle I can not be mistaken in supposing has received the unequivocal sanction of the American people, and all subsequent reflection has but satisfied me more thoroughly that the interests of our people and the purity of our Government, if not its existence, depend on its observance. The public lands are the common property of the United States, and the moneys arising from their sales are a part of the public revenue. This bill proposes to raise from and appropriate a portion of this public revenue to certain States, providing expressly that it shall "be applied to objects of internal improvement or education within those States," and then proceeds to appropriate the balance to all the States, with the declaration that it shall be applied "to such purposes as the legislatures of the said respective States shall deem proper." The former appropriation is expressly for internal improvements or education, without qualification as to the kind of improvements, and therefore in express violation of the principle maintained in my objections to the turnpike-road bill above referred to. The latter appropriation is more broad, and gives the money to be applied to any local purpose whatsoever. It will not be denied that under the provisions of the bill a portion of the money might have been applied to making the very road to which the bill of 1830 had reference, and must of course come within the scope of the same principle. If the money of the United States can not be applied to local purposes through its own agents , as little can it be permitted to be thus expended through the agency of the State governments.

It has been supposed that with all the reductions in our revenue which could be speedily effected by Congress without injury to the substantial interests of the country there might be for some years to come a surplus of moneys in the Treasury, and that there was in principle no objection to returning them to the people by whom they were paid. As the literal accomplishment of such an object is obviously impracticable, it was thought admissible, as the nearest approximation to it, to hand them over to the State governments, the more immediate representatives of the people, to be by them applied to the benefit of those to whom they properly belonged. The principle and the object were to return to the people an unavoidable surplus of revenue which might have been paid by them under a system which could not at once be abandoned, but even this resource, which at one time seemed to be almost the only alternative to save the General Government from grasping unlimited power over internal improvements, was suggested with doubts of its constitutionality.

But this bill assumes a new principle. Its object is not to return to the people an unavoidable surplus of revenue paid in by them, but to create a surplus for distribution among the States. It seizes the entire proceeds of one source of revenue and sets them apart as a surplus, making it necessary to raise the moneys for supporting the Government and meeting the general charges from other sources. It even throws the entire land system upon the customs for its support, and makes the public lands a perpetual charge upon the Treasury. It does not return to the people moneys accidentally or unavoidably paid by them to the Government, by which they are not wanted, but compels the people to pay moneys into the Treasury for the mere purpose of creating a surplus for distribution to their State governments. If this principle be once admitted, it is not difficult to perceive to what consequences it may lead. Already this bill, by throwing the land system on the revenues from imports for support, virtually distributes among the States a part of those revenues. The proportion may be increased from time to time, without any departure from the principle now asserted, until the State governments shall derive all the funds necessary for their support from the Treasury of the United States, or, if a sufficient supply should be obtained by some States and not by others, the deficient States might complain; and to put an end to all further difficulty Congress, without assuming any new principle, need go but one step further and put the salaries of all the State governors, judges, and other officers, with a sufficient sum for other expenses, in their general appropriation bill.

It appears to me that a more direct road to consolidation can not be devised. Money is power, and in that Government which pays all the public officers of the States will all political power be substantially concentrated. The State governments, if governments they might be called, would lose all their independence and dignity; the economy which now distinguishes them would be converted into a profusion, limited only by the extent of the supply. Being the dependents of the General Government, and looking to its Treasury as the source of all their emoluments, the State officers, under whatever names they might pass and by whatever forms their duties might be prescribed, would in effect be the mere stipendiaries and instruments of the central power.

I am quite sure that the intelligent people of our several States will be satisfied on a little reflection that it is neither wise nor safe to release the members of their local legislatures from the responsibility of levying the taxes necessary to support their State governments and vest it in Congress, over most of whose members they have no control. They will not think it expedient that Congress shall be the taxgatherer and paymaster of all their State governments, thus amalgamating all their officers into one mass of common interest and common feeling. It is too obvious that such a course would subvert our well-balanced system of government, and ultimately deprive us of all the blessings now derived from our happy Union.

However willing I might be that any unavoidable surplus in the Treasury should be returned to the people through their State governments, I can not assent to the principle that a surplus may be created for the purpose of distribution. Viewing this bill as in effect assuming the right not only to create a surplus for that purpose, but to divide the contents of the Treasury among the States without limitation, from whatever source they may be derived, and asserting the power to raise and appropriate money for the support of every State government and institution, as well

as for making every local improvement, however trivial, I can not give it my assent.

It is difficult to perceive what advantages would accrue to the old States or the new from the system of distribution which this bill proposes if it were otherwise unobjectionable. It requires no argument to prove that if $3,000,000 a year, or any other sum, shall be taken out of the Treasury by this bill for distribution it must be replaced by the same sum collected from the people through some other means. The old States will receive annually a sum of money from the Treasury, but they will pay in a larger sum, together with the expenses of collection and distribution. It is only their proportion of s even-eighths of the proceeds of land sales which they are to receive , but they must pay their due proportion of the whole. Disguise it as we may, the bill proposes to them a dead loss in the ratio of eight to seven, in addition to expenses and other incidental losses. This assertion is not the less true because it may not at first be palpable. Their receipts will be in large sums, but their payments in small ones. The governments of the States will receive seven dollars, for which the people of the States will pay eight . The large sums received will be palpable to the senses; the small sums paid it requires thought to identify. But a little consideration will satisfy the people that the effect is the same as if seven hundred dollars were given them from the public Treasury, for which they were at the same time required to pay in taxes, direct or indirect, eight hundred .

I deceive myself greatly if the new States would find their interests promoted by such a system as this bill proposes. Their true policy consists in the rapid settling and improvement of the waste lands within their limits. As a means of hastening those events, they have long been looking to a reduction in the price of public lands upon the final payment of the national debt. The effect of the proposed system would be to prevent that reduction. It is true the bill reserves to Congress the power to reduce the price, but the effect of its details as now arranged would probably be forever to prevent its exercise.

With the just men who inhabit the new States it is a sufficient reason to reject this system that it is in violation of the fundamental laws of the Republic and its Constitution. But if it were a mere question of interest or expediency they would still reject it. They would not sell their bright prospect of increasing wealth and growing power at such a price. They would not place a sum of money to be paid into their treasuries in competition with the settlement of their waste lands and the increase of their population. They would not consider a small or a large annual sum to be paid to their governments and immediately expended as an equivalent for that enduring wealth which is composed of flocks and herds and cultivated farms. No temptation will allure them from that object of abiding interest, the settlement of their waste lands, and the increase of a hardy race of free citizens, their glory in peace and their defense in war.

On the whole, I adhere to the opinion, expressed by me in my annual message of 1832, that it is our true policy that the public lands shall cease as soon as practicable to be a source of revenue, except for the payment of those general charges which grow out of the acquisition of the lands, their survey and sale. Although these expenses have not been met by the proceeds of sales heretofore, it is quite certain they will be hereafter, even after a considerable reduction in the price. By meeting in the Treasury so much of the general charge as arises from that source they will hereafter, as they have been heretofore, be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, according to the compacts of cession. I do not doubt that it is the real interest of each and all the States in the Union, and particularly of the new States, that the price of these lands shall be reduced and graduated, and that after they have been offered for a certain number of years the refuse remaining unsold shall be abandoned to the States and the machinery of our land system entirely withdrawn. It can not be supposed the compacts intended that the United States should retain forever a title to lands within the States which are of no value, and no doubt is entertained that the general interest would be best promoted by surrendering such lands to the States.

This plan for disposing of the public lands impairs no principle, violates no compact, and deranges no system. Already has the price of those lands been reduced from $2 per acre to $1.25, and upon the will of Congress it depends whether there shall be a further reduction. While the burdens of the East are diminishing by the reduction of the duties upon imports, it seems but equal justice that the chief burden of the West should be lightened in an equal degree at least. It would be just to the old States and the new, conciliate every interest, disarm the subject of all its

dangers, and add another guaranty to the perpetuity of our happy Union.

Sensible, however, of the difficulties which surround this important subject, I can only add to my regrets at finding myself again compelled to disagree with the legislative power the sincere declaration that any plan which shall promise a final and satisfactory disposition of the question and be compatible with the Constitution and public faith shall have my hearty concurrence.

ANDREW JACKSON.

(Note--For reasons for the pocket veto of "An act to improve the navigation of the Wabash River," see Sixth Annual Message)

PROTEST.*

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A Legal Overview of Utah’s H.B. 148 — !e Transfer of Public Lands Act

By Donald J. Kochan

THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY JAN.

2013

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment B

The complete White Paper is available at www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org

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“A Legal Overview of Utah’s H.B. 148 – The Transfer of Public Lands Act”

Author: Donald J. Kochan Law Review Article published by

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies Executive Summary Prepared by the American Lands Council

The Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act (“TPLA”) is distinct from prior state efforts to resolve the issue of federal control over more 50% of all lands in the West. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the contracts of statehood, like the Utah Enabling Act (“UEA”), are “solemn bilateral compacts” between sovereigns that are serious and enforceable. Read as a whole, the plain language of the UEA reflects not just a duty on the part of Utah to give clean title to the federal government (i.e. “forever disclaim all right and title”) but also a duty on the part of the federal government to timely dispose of the public lands (“until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States) – otherwise, Utah would never realize its benefit of its bargain in this “solemn agreement” – a part of the proceeds of sale directly to fund education and the ability to tax the lands to pay for essential public services.

I. The Transfer of Public Lands Act—H.B. 148

Transfer of Public Lands Act and Related Study (“TPLA”), HB 148 2012, has three basic parts, (1) the scope part explaining the breadth of the TPLA by defining terms and identifying exceptions; (2) the demand part; and (3) the pre- and post-extinguishment planning and management part, which describes the entities that will govern and prepare for a transition of ownership into State hands. (Utah Code §§ 63L- 6-101 through 104) The definitions provide that for purposes of the TPLA “Public lands means lands within the exterior boundaries of [Utah] except,” private lands, Indian lands, lands held in trust for the state, lands reserved for state institutions, a few other lands with distinct ownership characteristics, and finally and most significantly certain identified federally controlled areas of the State including the National Parks, National Monuments, Wilderness, and several other special-designation federal holdings. Most of the federal lands within the State of Utah that have received a heightened status of protection are not subjects of the TPLA. The heart of the TPLA is in the “demand” section. Utah Code § 63L-6-103 (1) states: “On or before December 31, 2014, the United States shall: (a) extinguish title to public lands; and (b) transfer title to public lands to the state.” In other words, federal public lands become state public lands. II. Historical Predecessors to the TPLA/H.B. 148

Utah’s reliance on the federal government’s promise to dispose of the public lands it acquired when Utah became a state is evident in the 1915 Senate Joint Memorial 4, which reads in part:

In harmony with the spirit and letter of the land grants to the National government, in perpetuation of a policy that has done more to promote the general welfare than any other policy in our national life, and in conformity with the terms of our Enabling


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Act, we, the members of the Legislature of the State of Utah, memorialize the President and the Congress of the United States for the speedy return to the former liberal National attitude toward the public domain, and we call attention to the fact that the burden of State and local government in Utah is borne by the taxation of less than one-third the lands of the State, which alone is vested in private or corporate ownership, and we hereby earnestly urge a policy that will afford an opportunity to settle our lands and make use of our resources on terms of equality with the older states, to the benefit and upbuilding of the State and to the strength of the nation.

Across the 20th century, there were increasing legislative and regulatory movements toward federal retention of public lands, in many ways critically culminating in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (“FLPMA”) which ultimately provided that “Congress declares that it is the policy of the United States that the public lands be retained in Federal ownership ...” A variety of legal maneuvers were tried by states and others to diminish federal control over public lands, although none looked exactly like the TPLA. For example, while Nevada passed a law declaring ownership of certain federal lands and while that law was invalidated by a federal district court, the TPLA does not “declare” that Utah owns land and makes no effort to take land away from the federal government. Instead, the TPLA merely articulates the federal government’s duty to dispose and demands that it comply. The TPLA is sufficiently distinct and can be studied effectively in isolation as well. Although some have called the TPLA a “new Sagebrush Rebellion,” the nature of the TPLA is different from measures that have come before it and the new law involves some very unique legal concerns. III. A Legal Analysis of the Transfer of Public Lands Act (H.B. 148)

A. An Enforceable Compact/Contract Theory of the Utah Enabling Act (“UEA”) with a Federal “Duty to Dispose”

A contract-based theory interpreting Utah’s Enabling Act is one of the strongest arguments to support the validity of Utah’s demand. The TPLA only seeks to enforce the promise made when Utah became a state that the federal government would dispose of the public lands – a promise the federal government has been unwilling to honor. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal commitments made to sovereign states at the time of their entry into the Union are serious and enforceable. (Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs). Furthermore, as the U.S. Supreme Court explained in Andrus v. Utah, promises in Enabling Acts are “‘solemn agreement[s]’ which in some ways may be analogized to a contract between private parties,” as well as “solemn bilateral compacts between each State and the Federal Government” where both parties have corresponding rights and duties. The Court in Andrus also recognized that these compacts anticipate remedies for breach – even against the federal government if it fails to perform duties arising under the compact.

Sections 3 and 9 of the UEA are the critical sections establishing a contractual “duty to dispose” on the part of the federal government. Section 3 provides, in part:

That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within


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the boundaries thereof; and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States; . . . that no taxes shall be imposed by the State on lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use;

The “forever disclaim” language of section 3 leads some to believe that Utah’s case for upholding the TPLA is a dead letter. However, reading this section in context shows that the parties anticipate that title will at some point be extinguished (the “until the title thereto shall have been extinguished” language together with the discussion of “disposition”, i.e. disposal). The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected such narrow contract interpretations that seek to look at “a part only” or “a single sentence.” Section 3 reflects the bargained-for purpose of the UEA: The federal government needed clean and certain title to public lands so that it could readily dispose of these properties to willing buyers for the highest price possible which directly benefited the state of Utah because it was to receive a percentage of such sales under Section 9 to fund education and would thereafter be able to tax the lands disposed of. Thus, Utah had a selfish interest in wanting the federal government to have certain title because it increased the state’s own gains under the agreement. Consider Section 9 of the UEA, which provides:

SEC. 9. That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State, which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest of which only shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State.

The express language of Section 9 entitles the State to proceeds from disposals. This means that the State is invested in and relying upon the existence of disposal, which, in consideration for this percentage of the proceeds, the State agreed to help facilitate disposals by disclaiming rights to the unappropriated lands so as to give the federal government the valuable commodity of certain title attached to the property disposed of. Basic rules of construction that require harmonization of Section 3 with Section 9 reflect a “duty to dispose.” If the federal government could retain the property, the State would never get any benefit from Section 9. It is impracticable to believe that the State intended to agree to disclaim rights in return for a cut of the sales of those lands yet intended no corresponding obligation that the federal government actually dispose of such lands. The words in Section 9 proclaiming that the lands ceded in Section 3 “shall be sold” indicates that disposal was not only anticipated but demanded and expected as a condition of the agreement. This mandatory language removes from the federal government the choice to never dispose.


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The TPLA calls for the disposal of lands that by the very nature of their acquisition came with an encumbrance attached – a compact and promise made between two sovereigns where the federal government committed itself to disposal and promised that it would exercise its disposal obligations in a manner so that both a percentage of the proceeds from the sales would be shared with the State and the State thereafter would have the capacity to tax such lands when disposed into private hands. Utah would not be the first to successfully advance this interpretation of the “consideration” for entering an enabling act. In 1828, for example, Representative Joseph Duncan of Illinois, in a Report to Congress from the Committee on Public Lands, identified a duty to dispose of federally held lands by terms of the rather uniform enabling acts in consideration for the state’s having given up rights to such properties and for temporarily surrendering the rights to tax such properties and obtain revenue. His statement argued, in part:

If these lands are to be withheld, which is the effect of the present system, in vain may the People of these States expect the advantages of well settled neighborhoods, so essential to the education of youth … Those States will, for many generations, without some change, be retarded in endeavors to increase their comfort and wealth, by means of works of internal improvements, because they have not the power, incident to all sovereign States, of taxing the soil, to pay for the benefits conferred upon its owner by roads and canals. When these States stipulated not to tax the lands of the United States until they were sold, they rested upon the implied engagement of Congress to cause them to be sold, within a reasonable time. No just equivalent has been given those States for a surrender of an attribute of sovereignty so important to their welfare, and to an equal standing with the original States.

Courts generally err on the side of a contract interpretation that ensures that each party receives the benefit of the bargain struck in the written instrument. The State of Utah can be treated fairly under the UEA with some benefit of the bargain protected only if it can impose a duty to dispose, as explicitly included in Sections 3 or 9 or as implicitly mandated within a comprehensive reading of the whole of the UEA. If the federal government does not dispose of the public lands then the State will not receive its anticipated percentage of the proceeds of sales and will be unable to realize taxation and productivity benefits from the private owners and their uses of the property. There is also a strong argument that the intent and expectations of the State of Utah and the federal government at the time of the UEA were informed by the predominant ethic in favor of, and presumptions toward, the disposal of federally controlled public lands into private hands. The expectation of disposal dates back to the intentions regarding the western lands pre-dating the Constitutional Convention and the promises made to the original states that the unappropriated lands would be disposed of. Consider the congressional resolution passed on October 10, 1780:

Resolved, That the unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, by any particular states, . . . shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct republican states, which shall become members of the federal union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence, as the other states . . . That the said lands shall be granted and settled at such times and under


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such regulations as shall hereafter be agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled.

Utah became a State during this disposal era in public lands law. The U.S. Supreme Court has explained that “The intention of the parties is to be gathered, not from [a] single sentence [], but from the whole instrument read in the light of the circumstances existing at the time of negotiations leading up to its execution.” The UEA was entered into against a backdrop of an ethic of disposal. Consequently, this ethic informed the expectations of the parties and is relevant in interpretation. The compact-based duty-to-dispose theory is, furthermore, supported by past statements of officials recognizing its logic and historical underpinnings. For example, President Andrew Jackson made an eloquent and persuasive defense of the compact-based duty to dispose in a pocket veto message to Congress where he refused to sign legislation passed by Congress that would have used proceeds from disposing of public lands for certain general federal purposes rather than complying with terms of disposal set out in compacts between the federal government and certain states. Jackson started his rather long statement with a history lesson on “the manner in which the public lands upon which it is intended to operate were acquired and the conditions upon which they are now held by the United States.” He explained that the original states were induced into ceding their land to the federal government by the promise that the federal government would eventually dispose of all of these lands. For example, the deed of cession from Virginia provided that the lands “shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.”

Jackson described the commitment to dispose in agreements with the original states as “solemn compacts” where “[t]he States claiming those lands acceded to those views and transferred their claims to the United States upon certain specific conditions, and on those conditions the grants were accepted.” Jackson concluded his veto message with a strong statement that the agreements with the original states for cession of their rights to Western lands and the commitments made to new states could only be read as creating a duty to dispose and an obligation to “abandon” the property that the federal government cannot, or no longer has a financial need to, dispose of:

I do not doubt that it is the real interest of each and all the States in the Union, and particularly of the new States, that the price of these lands shall be reduced and graduated, and that after they have been offered for a certain number of years the refuse remaining unsold shall be abandoned to the States and the machinery of our land system entirely withdrawn. It can not be supposed the compacts intended that the United States should retain forever a title to lands within the States which are of no value, and no doubt is entertained that the general interest would be best promoted by surrendering such lands to the States.

B. Distinguishing Cases and Identifying Dicta: The Limited Legal Commentary and Arguments against the Validity of the TPLA

Much of what is cited as “precedent” against the TPLA is really only judicial “over-speak.” The quotes are from “dicta” having nothing to do with the actual resolution and holding of the cases.


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Such cases generally address only what a state may or may not do while the federal government is an owner of public lands but do not address the federal government’s independent duty to dispose. Most of the cases decided across the years under the Property Clause have focused on the state’s obligations and commitments under the compacts – such as the obligation not to intervene in Federal use or disrupt the sanctity of federal disposal agreements – but very little case law has examined the flip side of the compacts: the federal government’s obligations and commitments to dispose. A compact is not a one-way street.

C. The Equal Footing Doctrine, Federalism, Pollard-Based Interpretation of the Property Clause Power and Other Legal Arguments

Separately and independently, the Equal Footing Doctrine and/or basic tenets of Federalism might create independent duties for the federal government requiring it to dispose of public land holdings wholly apart from (and perhaps in addition to) a compact-based duty to dispose arising from the Enabling Act. The Equal Footing Doctrine and Federalism principles can be employed as background principles that color an interpretation of the Enabling Act that finds the existence of a compact-based duty to dispose. These principles could help support efforts to resolve any ambiguities in the Enabling Act. These policies generally weigh in favor of greater state autonomy and can therefore be used to assist in distinguishing cases where broad federal powers were stated to exist … from a compact-based duty to dispose. … Such a duty to dispose is designed, like these principles, to limit federal power. Importantly, these Equal Footing and Federalism doctrines … could help tip the compact theory of the Enabling Act towards the State’s position if there is some reluctance to accept an interpretation finding a compact-based duty to dispose. D. A Few Thoughts on Justiciability Concerns

The federal government has an independent obligation to live up to its commitments that requires political will on the part of legislators and pressure applied and accountability demanded by the electorate. There are many obligations in our constitutional scheme that require self-enforcement by political actors out of their oath and constitutional duties, irrespective of whether a court order can or will compel the action.

Conclusion There is a credible case that rules of construction favor an interpretation of the Utah Enabling Act that includes some form of a duty to dispose on the part of the federal government. Other theories may also support the TPLA demand. At the very least, it is clear that the law is not “clearly” unconstitutional as some opponents contend. The legal arguments in favor of the TPLA are serious and, if taken seriously, the TPLA presents an opportunity for further clarification of public lands law and the relationship between the states and the federal government regarding those lands.

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No Laughing Matter: Utah’s Fight to Reclaim Federal LandsPosted on February 26, 2013 in Administrative Law, Environmental Law | Comments Off

On its face, Utah’s Transfer of Public Land Act (hereinafter “TPLA”)[i], like those recently passed by Arizona[ii] and Idaho[iii], seems as authoritative ademand as that of a child to his parent:

(1) On or before December 31, 2014, the United States shall:

(a) extinguish title to public lands; and

(b) transfer title to public lands to the state.[iv]

But in this case, he’s a child with claims in contract, and the parent’s apparently supreme authority is necessarily tempered by its respect for constitutionalsovereignty. And, like any demand carrying the poignancy of a bona fide “you promised,” the demands are not lightly to be ignored.

Critics have called the legislation “an embarrassment,”[v] and most have dismissed the possibility of the states ultimately succeeding in court,[vi] should thefederal government fail to comply with the demand and the states subsequently seek relief from the judiciary. Even the Legislative Review Note appendedto the statute itself concludes, “[the requirement] that the United States extinguish title to public lands and transfer title to those public lands to Utah by adate certain… and any attempt by Utah in the future to enforce the requirement, have a high probability of being declared unconstitutional.”[vii]

The skepticism derives from authorities no less than the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Utah Enabling Act. The Constitution, via theProperty Clause, grants the federal government full discretion in the disposition of its lands: “The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make allneedful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construedas to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.”[viii] Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court has said, inter alia, “Congress has thesame power over [territory] as over any other property belonging to the United States; and this power is vested in Congress without limitation,”[ix] and,“[w]ith respect to the public domain, the Constitution vests in Congress the power of disposition … That power is subject to no limitations. Congress has theabsolute right to prescribe the times, the conditions, and the mode of transferring this property… No State legislation can interfere with this right.”[x]Finally, the Utah Enabling Act provides, “That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title tothe unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof.”[xi]

Nevertheless, the constitutionality of TPLA remains plausible. To appreciate this requires an understanding of the precise claims at issue. Considerations ofthe principles of federalism and equal standing are important but supplemental to what is perhaps the state’s strongest argument: contractual obligation.[xii]

Utah’s claim in contract is that the federal government, in granting Utah statehood via the Utah Enabling Act[xiii] (hereinafter “UEA”), gave Utah certainpromises in exchange for its cession of public land, foremost among them that federal title to the lands would eventually be extinguished, that the publiclands would be sold, and that 5% of the proceeds of the sales would be paid to the state of Utah.[xiv] Section 3 of the UEA, Utah having “foreverdisclaim[ed] all right and title,” nevertheless concludes, “until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States.”[xv] More compellingly,Section 9 provides, “That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State, which shall be sold by the United Statessubsequent to the admission of said State into the Union . . . shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest of which only shallbe expended for the support of the common schools within said State.”[xvi]

The use of “shall” in these provisions is significant. Given the plenary power of the federal government with respect to its property, “shall” might simply beconstrued in favor the federal government (i.e. not necessarily as a command). But precedent, taken with an analysis of the use of “shall” throughout theEnabling Act, suggests otherwise. “Shall” occurs 83 times throughout the Act, is used as a command almost without exception,[xvii] and is readily used incontradistinction to “may,” which occurs 20 times and exclusively as an expression of permissiveness. Furthermore, extensive precedent dictates that“shall” is used to imply something that will or must occur, while “may” merely grants the possibility of its occurrence.[xviii]

Moreover, in conjunction with this “promise” there is controlling precedent equating the Enabling Acts with bilateral contracts, and the promises made in

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such Acts by the United States have been held to be “obligatory on the United States.”[xix]

If Utah’s claim represents an actual contractual obligation of the United States, then there are at least two ways in which a court might interpret theobligation in light of the Property Clause of the Constitution (and corresponding precedent). First, the court might interpret the Property Clause of theConstitution as referring to governmentally owned property with no encumbrances. The plain meaning of the clause seems to suggest this, although it doesnot state it explicitly. In any case, if the government did rescind, it might simply choose to pay Utah its damages. Or it might embrace the obligation, butcontend that even under the statute’s terms, it’s clearly within the discretion of the federal government when to extinguish its own title (and here the courtmay or may not impose a duty to extinguish within a “reasonable time”). On the other hand, in either instance, the government might make a powerfulstatement of executive discretion and refuse to fulfill the obligation or pay damages; and the judiciary might well grant the executive extreme deference inview of the broad power conferred by the Property Clause.

Ultimately, there is little precedent speaking to the precise issue at hand. The leading authorities cited in the Legislative Note and by critics, for example,have been distinguished by Donald J. Kochan as “miss[ing] their target and… almost entirely inapposite.”[xx] In general, the broad precedential statementscited by critics of TPLA are much broader than the holdings themselves require, and none of the precedent addresses the specific question of whether thefederal government is obligated in contract to extinguish title to land received from the state in consideration for admission to the Union.[xxi]

Regardless of any future decision, the enforceability of the claims is unclear. It remains to be seen whether the executive would enforce a judgmentfavorable to the states and whether the states could effectively resort to the political process.

- Austin Anderson is a General Member of MJEAL. He can be reached at [email protected].

[i] H.B. 148, 59th Leg., Gen. Sess. (Utah 2012), available at http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/hbillenr/hb0148.pdf.

[ii] S.B. 1332, 50th Leg., 2nd Sess. (Ariz. 2012), available at http://votesmart.org/static/billtext/39895.pdf. The bill was ultimately vetoed by theGovernor.

[iii] See Associated Press, Idaho Looks at Fighting Feds for Control of Public Lands, The Oregonian, January 23, 2013, available athttp://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/01/idaho_looks_at_fighting_feds_f.html.

[iv] H.B. 148, supra note i.

[v] Associated Press, Ariz. Governor Vetoes Federal Land-Seizure Measure, greenwire, May 15, 2012.

[vi] See, e.g., Verlyn Klinkenborg, The Gradual Selling of America the Beautiful, N.Y. Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/opinion/sunday/the-gradual-selling-of-america-the-beautiful.html?_r=0, (“[the] laws would almost certainly be struck down as unconstitutional.

[vii] H.B. 148, supra note i.

[viii] U.S. Const. art. IV, § 3.

[ix] U.S. v. Gratiot, 39 U.S. 526 (1840).

[x] Gibson v. Chouteau, 80 U.S. 92 (1872).

[xi] Utah Code Ann., Enabling Act, available at http://archives.utah.gov/research/ exhibits/Statehood/1894text.htm.

[xii] Donald J. Kochan, A Legal Overview of Utah’s H.B. 148 – The Transfer of Public Lands Act, The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy StudiesWhite Paper, Jan. 2013, at 10, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2200471.

[xiii] Enabling Act, supra note xi.

[xiv] Id.

[xv] Id. at §3 (emphasis added).

[xvi] Id. at §9 (emphasis added).

[xvii] The possible exception being, “in case the Constitution of said State shall be ratified by the people… the Legislature thereof may assemble…” Id. at§19.

[xviii] See, e.g., U.S. v. Thoman, 156 U.S. 353, 359(1895) (“In the law to be construed here it is evident that the word ‘may’ is used in specialcontradistinction to the word ‘shall,’ and hence there can be no reason for ‘taking such a liberty.’ The legislature first imposes an imperative duty”);Anderson v. Yungkau. 329 U.S. 482, 485 (1947) (“The word ‘shall’ is ordinarily ‘The language of command’ And when the same Rule uses both ‘may’ and‘shall’, the normal inference is that each is used in its usual sense-the one act being permissive, the other mandatory”); Lopez v. Davis, 531 U.S. 230, 241(2001) (“Congress’ use of the permissive “may” in § 3621(e)(2)(B) contrasts with the legislators’ use of a mandatory “shall” in the very same section.Elsewhere in § 3621, Congress used “shall” to impose discretionless obligations, including the obligation to provide drug treatment when funds areavailable”).

[xix] See, e.g., Andrus v. Utah, 446 U.S. 500, 507 (1980) (“As Utah correctly emphasizes, the school land grant was a “solemn agreement” which in someways may be analogized to a contract between private parties. The United States agreed to cede some of its land to the State in exchange for a commitmentby the State to use the revenues derived from the land to educate the citizenry”); U.S. v. Morrison, 240 U.S. 192, 196 (1916) (quoting the Act of February




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14, 1859, chap. 33, admitting Oregon into the Union: “the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to the said people of Oregon for theirfree acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted, shall be obligatory on the United States and upon the said state of Oregon”).

[xx] Donald J. Kochan, supra note xii, at 19.

[xxi] Id.

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The$Promises$are$the$Same!

Hawaii!–!the!last!and!Western-most!State!“…!the$United$States$grants$to$the$State$of$Hawaii,$effective$upon$its$admission$into$the$Union,$the$United$States’$title$to$all$the$public$lands$and$other$public$property$within$the$boundaries$of$the$State$of$Hawaii,$title$to$which$is$held$by$the$United$States$immediately$prior$to$its$admission$into$the$Union.”$Hawaii!Enabling!Act,!March!18,!1959

Some!say!that!western!states!gave!up!(“forever!disclaimed”)!their!lands!at!statehood.!!This!doesn’t!make!sense!!The!statehood!contracts!(“enabling!acts”)!for!the!transfer!of!public!lands!are!largely!the!same!for!states!east!and!west!of!Colorado.!!!Here!is!a!side-by-side!comparison!of!the!enabling!acts!of!Utah!vs.!North!Dakota!and!Nevada!vs.!Nebraska.!!The!enabling!acts!of!other!western!states!are!nearly!identical.!!The!performance!of!the!federal!government!IS!NOT!!!Here!are!links!to!a!Legal!Analysis!of!Transfer!of!Public!Lands!Legislation!commissioned!by!the!Federalist!Society!and!an!Executive!Summary.

North$Dakota$Enabling$Act,$February$22,$1889

49.4%$Federally$controlled$in$18963%$Federally$Controlled$Today

Utah$Enabling$Act,$March$21,$1864

86%$Federally$Controlled$in$189667%$Federally$Controlled$Today

“The$constitution$shall$be$republican$in$form,$…$and$not$be$repugnant$to$the$Constitution$of$the$United$States$and$the$principles$of$the$Declaration$of$Independence.$And$said$conventions$shall$provide,$by$ordinances$irrevocable$without$the$consent$of$the$United$States$and$the$people$of$said$States:D”!Section!4,!Preamble,!ND,!SD,!MT,!WA!Enabling!Act,!February!22,!1889

“The$constitution$shall$be$republican$in$form,$…$and$not$to$be$repugnant$to$the$Constitution$of$the$United$States$and$the$principles$of$the$Declaration$of$Independence.$And$said$convention$shall$provide,$by$ordinance$irrevocable$without$the$consent$of$the$United$States$and$the$people$of$said$State))”!Section!3,!Preamble,!Utah!Enabling!Act,!July!16,!1894

“That$the$people$inhabiting$said$proposed$States$do$agree$and$declare$that$they$forever$disclaim$all$right$and$title$to$the$unappropriated$public$lands$lying$within$the$boundaries$thereof,$…$and$that$until$the$title$thereto$shall$have$been$extinguished$by$the$United$States,$the$same$shall$be$and$remain$subject$to$the$disposition$of$the$United$States,$and$…$no$taxes$shall$be$imposed$by$the$States$on$lands$or$property$therein$belonging$to$or$which$may$hereafter$be$purchased$by$the$United$States!or!reserved!for!its!use;”!Section!4,!Second,!ND,!SD,!MT,!WA!Enabling!Act,!February!22,!1889

“That$the$people$inhabiting$said$proposed$State$do$agree$and$declare$that$they$forever$disclaim$all$right$and$title$to$the$unappropriated$public$lands$lying$within$the$boundaries$thereof;$…$and$that$until$the$title$thereto$shall$have$been$extinguished$by$the$United$States,$the$same$shall$be$and$remain$subject$to$the$disposition$of$the$United$States,$and$…$no$taxes$shall$be$imposed$by$the$State$on$lands$or$property$therein$belonging$to$or$which$may$hereafter$be$purchased$by$the$United$States!or!reserved!for!its!use;”!Section!3,!Second,!Utah!Enabling!Act,!July!16,!1894

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“And$if$the$constitutions$and$governments$of$said$proposed$States$are$republican$in$form,$and$if$all$the$provisions$of$this$Act$have$been$complied$with$in$the$formation$thereof,$is$shall$be$the$duty$of$the$President$of$the$United$States$to$issue$his$proclamation$announcing$the$result$of$said$election$in$each,$and$thereupon$the$proposed$States$which$have$adopted$constitutions$and$formed$State$governments$as$herein$provided$shall$be$deemed$admitted$by$Congress$into$the$Union$under$and$by$virtue$of$this$act$on$an$equal$footing$with$the$original$States$from$and$after$the$date$of$said$proclamation.”!Section!8,!ND,!SD,!MT,!WA!Enabling!Act,!February!22,!1889

“And$if$the$constitution$and$government$of$said$proposed$State$are$republican$in$form,$and$if$all$the$provisions$of$this$Act$have$been$complied$with$in$the$formation$thereof,$is$shall$be$the$duty$of$the$President$of$the$United$States$to$issue$his$proclamation$announcing$the$result$of$said$election,$and$thereupon$the$proposed$State$of$Utah$shall$be$deemed$admitted$by$Congress$into$the$Union,$under$and$by$virtue$of$this$Act,$on$an$equal$footing$with$the$original$States,$from$and$after$the$date$of$said$proclamation.”!Section!4,!Utah!Enabling!Act,!July!16,!1894

“That!upon!admission!of!each$of$said!States!into!the!Union!sections$numbered$sixteen,$and$thirtyDsix$in$every$township$of$said$proposed$States,$and$where$such$sections,$or$any$parts$thereof,$have$been$sold$or$otherwise$disposed$of$by$or$under$any$act$of$Congress,$other$lands$equivalent$thereto$…$are$hereby,$granted$to$said$States$for$the$support$of$common$schools,!…”!Section!10,!ND,!SD,!MT,!WA!Enabling!Act,!February!22,!1889

“That!upon!admission!of!said!State!into!the!Union,!sections$numbered$two,$sixteen,$thirty)two,$and$thirtyDsix$in$every$township$of$said$proposed$State,$and$where$such$sections$or$any$parts$thereof$have$been$sold$or$otherwise$disposed$of$by$or$under$any$Act$of$Congress$other$lands$equivalent$thereto$…$are$hereby,$granted$to$said$State$for$the$support$of$common$schools,!…”!Section!6,!Utah!Enabling!Act,!July!16,!1894

“That$Iive$per$centum$of$the$proceeds$of$the$sales$of$public$lands$lying$within$said$States$which$shall$be$sold$by$the$United$States$subsequent$to$the$admission$of$said$States$into$the$Union,$after$deducting$all$expenses$incident$to$the$same,$shall$be$paid$to$the$said$States,$to$be$used$as$a$permanent$fund,$the$interest$of$which$only$shall$be$expended$for$the$support$of$the$common$schools$within$said$States,$respectively.”!Section!9,!ND,!SD,!MT,!WA!Enabling!Act,!February!22,!1889

“That$Iive$per$centum$of$the$proceeds$of$the$sales$of$public$lands$lying$within$said$State,$which$shall$be$sold$by$the$United$States$subsequent$to$the$admission$of$said$State$into$the$Union,$after$deducting$all$expenses$incident$to$the$same,$shall$be$paid$to$the$said$State,$to$be$used$as$a$permanent$fund,$the$interest$of$which$only$shall$be$expended$for$the$support$of$the$common$schools$within$said$State.”!Section!9,!Utah!Enabling!Act,!July!16,!1894






Nebraska$Enabling$Act,$April$19,$1864


Nevada$Enabling$Act,$March$21,$1864


“Provided,$That$the$constitution$when$formed$shall$be$republican,$and$not$repugnant$to$the$constitution$of$the$United$States$and$the$principles$of$the$Declaration$of$Independence;$And$provided$further,$That$said$constitution$shall$provide,$by$an$article$forever$irrevocable,$without$the$consent$of$the$Congress$of$the$United$States:”!Section!4,!Preamble,!Nebraska!Enabling!Act,!April!19,!1864

“Provided,$That$the$constitution$when$formed$shall$be$republican,$and$not$repugnant$to$the$constitution$of$the$United$States$and$the$principles$of$the$Declaration$of$Independence;$And$provided$further,$That$said$constitution$shall$provide,$by$an$ordinance$irrevocable,$without$the$consent$of$the$Congress$of$the$United$States$and$the$people$of$said$state:”!Section!4,!Preamble,!Nevada!Enabling!Act,!March!21,!1864

“That$the$people$inhabiting$said$territory$do$agree$and$declare$that$they$forever$disclaim$all$right$and$title$to$the$unappropriated$public$lands$lying$within$said$territory,$and$that$the$same$shall$be$and$remain$at$the$sole$and$entire$disposition$of$the$United$States,$and$that$…$no$taxes$shall$be$imposed$by$said$state$on$lands$or$property$therein$belonging$to$or$which$may$hereafter$be$purchased$by$the$United$States.”!Section!5,!Third,!Nebraska!Enabling!Act,!April!19,!1864

“That$the$people$inhabiting$said$territory$do$agree$and$declare$that$they$forever$disclaim$all$right$and$title$to$the$unappropriated$public$lands$lying$within$said$territory,$and$that$the$same$shall$be$and$remain$at$the$sole$and$entire$disposition$of$the$United$States,$and$that$…$no$taxes$shall$be$imposed$by$said$state$on$lands$or$property$therein$belonging$to$or$which$may$hereafter$be$purchased$by,$the$United$States.”!Section!5,!Third,!Nevada!Enabling!Act,!March!21,!1864

“…!declaring$the$state$admitted$into$the$Union$on$an$equal$footing$with$the$original$states,$without$any$further$action$whatever$on$the$part$of$congress.”!Section!5,!Nebraska!Enabling!Act,!April!19,!1864

“…!declaring$the$state$admitted$into$the$Union$on$an$equal$footing$with$the$original$states,$without$any$further$action$whatever$on$the$part$of$congress.”!Section!5,!Nevada!Enabling!Act,!March!21,!1864!!(See!also,!Section!1)

“That$sections$numbered$sixteen$and$thirtyDsix$in$every$township,$and$when$such$section$have$been$sold$or$otherwise$disposed$of$by$any$act$of$congress,$other$lands$equivalent$thereto$…$shall$be,$and$are$hereby,$granted$to$said$state$for$the$support$of$common$schools.”!Section!7,!Nebraska!Enabling!Act,!April!19,!1864

“That$sections$numbered$sixteen$and$thirtyDsix$in$every$township,$and$where$such$sections$have$been$sold$or$otherwise$disposed$of$by$any$act$of$congress,$other$lands$equivalent$thereto$…$shall$be,$and$are$hereby,$granted$to$said$state$for$the$support$of$common$schools.”!Section!7,!Nevada!Enabling!Act,!March!21,!1864






“That$Iive$per$centum$of$the$proceeds$of$the$sales$of$all$public$lands$lying$within$said$state,$which$have$been$or$shall$be$sold$by$the$United$States$prior$or$subsequent$to$the$admission$of$said$state$into$the$Union,$after$deducting$all$expenses$incident$to$the$same,$shall$be$paid$to$the$said$state$for$the$support$of$common$schools.”!Section!12,!Nebraska!Enabling!Act,!April!19,!1864

“That$Iive$per$centum$of$the$proceeds$of$the$sales$of$all$public$lands$lying$within$said$state,$which$shall$be$sold$by$the$United$States$subsequent$to$the$admission$of$said$state$into$the$Union,$after$deducting$all$expenses$incident$to$the$same,$shall$be$paid$to$the$said$state$for$the$purpose$of$making$and$improving$public$roads,$constructing$ditches$or$canals,$to$effect$a$general$system$of$irrigation$of$the$agricultural$land$in$the$state,$as$the$legislature$shall$direct.”!Section!12,!Nevada!Enabling!Act,!March!21,!1864






Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment E

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY


1

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SITUATIONAL INFORMATION REPORT

Criminal Activity Alert Denver Division

07 May 2012 (U) Al-Qaida In The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) "Inspire" Magazine Encourages The Use Of Wildfires As A Form Of Jihad (U//FOUO) The Denver Division of the FBI is releasing this report to raise the awareness of local and state law enforcement partners and public safety officials about the possible threat of wildfires. (U//FOUO) Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has released issue 9 of its English-language "Inspire" Magazine. There is a portion of the magazine dedicated to attacking the United States by starting wildfires. The article instructs the audience to look for two necessary factors for a successful wildfire, which are dryness and high winds to help spread the fire. Specific fire conditions that are likely to spread fire quickly are Pinewood, crownfires (where the trees and branches are close together), and steep slope fires (fire spreads faster going up a slope). (U//FOUO) Inspire magazine lists instructions for igniting a forest fire. The list of required materials include quick inflammable material (1/3 of a liter of gasoline), and a material with slow and long lasting inflammation (foam). The article continues to instruct the reader about how to prepare an ember bomb, which consists of gasoline soaked foam that is ignited by a timer. The article advises the reader to use thirty ember bombs, placed in the tops of trees about a third into the forest, opposite the wind. (U//FOUO) Throughout Colorado, conditions are favorable for wildfires. Colorado’s forests have been impacted by the mountain pine beetle, and the plains regions are extremely dry. Continuous stands of dead lodgepole pine with dead needles in the crowns (typically lasting 2 to 3 years after a successful fire) will support running crown fires under the right weather conditions.a

a (U) Colorado Information Analysis Center CEPP Bulletin, CIAC Report 12-052

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment F

Rebecca Ivory



2

(U//FOUO) Below is a map from Inspire magazine with the caption “A diagram showing the combustible areas in the U.S.”

(U) This report has been prepared by the Denver Division of the FBI and the Colorado Information Analysis Center. Comments and queries may be addressed to the Denver Division Field Intelligence Group at (303) 629-7171.

6/27/13 5:07 PMInstitute for Energy Research | Federal Assets Above and Below Ground

Page 1 of 9http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/01/17/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/

Federal Assets Above and Below Ground(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/01/17/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/)

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The federal government owns a great deal of valuable assets both above and belowground. The above ground assets include buildings, lands, roads, railroadinfrastructure, levees, dams, and hydroelectric generating facilities, to name just afew, many of which are underutilized. Below the ground, the federal governmentowns the rights to mineral and energy leases, from which they receive royalties,rents, and bonus payments.

Federal real property totals over 900,000 assets(http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/efficiency-effectiveness/federal_property.php) with acombined area of over 3 billion square feet and more than 41 million acres of land(http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/111th/Sitting_On_Our_Assets_Report.pdf). Additionally, the federal government owns over 600 million acres(http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pd) of lands and minerals onshore, and ownsor manages a total of approximately 755 million acres of onshore subsurfacemineral estate (http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/About_BLM/subsurface.html) . Offshore, the federal government owns some 1.76 billion acres(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/ocs/) of lands and mineral estate,extending out 200 nautical miles from our shores. The federal government’s totalmineral estate holdings are therefore about 2.515 billion acres of lands. Thus, thefederal government’s mineral estate land holdings surpass the total surface landarea of the nation of Canada(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area) . Theseholdings, as we will see, are vastly underutilized.

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/01/17/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment G

Rebecca Ivory

http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/efficiency-effectiveness/federal_property.php

http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/111th/Sitting_On_Our_Assets_Report.pdf

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pd

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/About_BLM/subsurface.html

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/ocs/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area



(http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls1-3publandsmap_11.pdf)

(Click image for larger view)

Source: Bureau of Land Management,http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls1-3publandsmap_11.pdf(http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls1-3publandsmap_11.pdf)

In fiscal year 2009, federal agencies reported 45,190 underutilized buildings, anincrease of 1,830 underutilized buildings from the previous fiscal year. In fiscalyear 2009, these underutilized buildings accounted for $1.66 billion in annualoperating costs, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). The majorityof federally owned and leased space is held by the Departments of Defense andVeterans Affairs, the U.S. Postal Service, and the General Services Administration(GSA).[i] (#_edn1) For example, the federal government’s landlord, the GSA, ownsor leases 9,600 assets with more than 362 million square feet of workspace.According to the GSA, in a 2009 report, almost 40 percent of its assets were underperforming. In October 2010, a congressional study evaluated the savings thatcould occur based on better administration of the government’s above ground assetsthat totaled over several hundred billion dollars.[ii] (#_edn2)

http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls1-3publandsmap_11.pdf

http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls1-3publandsmap_11.pdf

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/01/17/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/#_edn1




IER estimated the worth of the government’s oil and gas technically recoverableresources to the economy to be $128 trillion, about 8 times our national debt(http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/) . Further, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)estimated (http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/08-09-12_Oil-and-Gas_Leasing.pdf) that state and national coffers would generate almost $150 billionover a 10 year period from royalties, rents, and bonuses under the current leasingprogram and another $7 billion if certain additional resources that are eitherstatutorily or administratively withheld were immediately opened to oil and gasleasing. The CBO study estimates are considered to be conservative whencompared to historical data and estimates by other analysts and do not consider theearnings from taxes paid by these industries. IER estimated the government’s coalresources in the lower 48 states to be worth $22.5 trillion for a total worth to theeconomy of fossil fuels on federal lands of $150.5 trillion, over 9 times our nationaldebt. Most of the coal resources in Alaska are deemed to be federally owned andare estimated to be 60 percent higher than those in the entire lower 48 states but arenot included in these estimates.

The Federal Government’s Assets above the Ground

As mentioned above, the GSA owns or leases 9,600 assets covering over 362million square feet of workspace. GSA is one of nine federal agencies—Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, Department of Energy (DOE),Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Interior(DOI),Department of State, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), andthe U.S. Postal Service–that own or manage 93 percent of federal property.

The average age of GSA’s real property inventory is 46 years and a third of itsassets are older than the agency itself. In 2003, GSA indicated that it had 236vacant or underused properties consisting of commercial office space, warehouses,manufacturing facilities, and special use facilities such as court houses and ashopping mall, and these still remain vacant or underutilized. According to theGeneral Accounting Office (GAO), DOE, DHS, and NASA report about 10 percentof their facilities as excess or underutilized. If this number is extrapolatedgovernment wide, about 330 million square feet(http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/111th/Sitting_On_Our_Assets_Report.pdf)of government facilities would be excess or underutilized.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/08-09-12_Oil-and-Gas_Leasing.pdf




Because of legal and regulatory requirements that agencies must meet when theydispose of government property, they are slow at taking those steps. Governmentagencies are required to assess and implement corrective actions needed to meetenvironmental, repair and maintenance issues before a property can be disposed, aswell as screening the property for other federal uses. Agencies rarely recoup thecosts of these activities. Although Congress passed legislation in 2004 to bypasssome of these requirements, agencies are still not readily disposing of unusedassets.

GSA now leases more property than it owns. For example, in fiscal year 2009, GSAleased 184 million rentable square feet, while owning 177 million rentable squarefeet. GAO found that leasing may be beneficial for small agencies or programs withshort-term needs, but it is not beneficial for larger ones that need the space for 20 or30 years.

The Department of Transportation owns or leases about 69,500 real property assets—more than 4 million miles of roads, a heavily subsidized Amtrak, and more than$17 billion in passenger rail infrastructure. In each of these, a study foundmismanagement of federal dollars to achieve goals that should have providedbenefit. For example, Amtrak managed several projects to improve speed andperformance but accomplished only half of the speed other countries are adoptingin an area where high-speed rail could be profitable.

The federal government also owns about 1,700 miles of levees, 650 dams, 383major lakes and reservoirs, 12,000 miles of commercial inland channels, and 75hydroelectric generating facilities. The study found that the Army Corps ofEngineers is also underperforming, costing the government and taxpayers moneybecause of delays in its project planning process that needs streamlining.

While progress has been made on many fronts, including significant progress withreal property data reliability and managing the condition of facilities, agencies facelong-standing problems with overreliance on leasing, excess and underutilizedproperty, and protection of federal facilities.

Federal Government Assets below the Ground

Federal assets below the ground are primarily mineral and energy resources, such as



oil, natural gas, and coal. For example, the United States owns millions of acresand billions of barrels of oil that can be developed on federal lands and waters.Currently, the government leases only 2 percent of federal offshore(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/09/24/u-s-oil-production-up-but-on-whose-lands-2/) areas and less than 6 percent of federal onshore lands for oil and naturalgas production. Areas that the federal government could open to oil and gasdevelopment include:

The 10.4 billion barrels of oil(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/anwr/) and 8.6 trillion cubic feetof natural gas (http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/02/23/u-s-government-shuts-out-increased-alaskan-oil-production/) in the Arctic National Wildlife RefugeThe 86 billion barrels of oil (http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/ocs/)and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the outer continental shelf of thelower 48 statesThe 896 million barrels of oil (http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3102/) and 53 trillioncubic feet of natural gas in the Naval Petroleum Reserve-AlaskaThe 25 billion barrels of oil(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/02/23/u-s-government-shuts-out-increased-alaskan-oil-production/) in the outer continental shelf of AlaskaThe 90 billion barrels of oil(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/02/23/u-s-government-shuts-out-increased-alaskan-oil-production/) and 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas inthe geologic provinces north of the Arctic circleThe 982 billion barrels of oil shale(http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/oil-shale/) in the GreenRiver Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

These technically recoverable resources total 1,194 billion barrels of oil and 2,150trillion cubic feet of natural gas that is owned by the federal taxpayer. At $100.00per barrel of oil (http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec5_47.pdf) and $4.00per thousand cubic feet of natural gas(http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec6_17.pdf) , the oil resources are worth$119.4 trillion and the natural gas resources are worth $8.6 trillion for a grand totalof $128 trillion, or about 8 times the U.S. national debt.[iii] (#_edn3)

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/09/24/u-s-oil-production-up-but-on-whose-lands-2/

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/anwr/

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/02/23/u-s-government-shuts-out-increased-alaskan-oil-production/

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/issues/ocs/

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3102/



http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/oil-shale/

http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec5_47.pdf





In August of this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produced a study(http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/08-09-12_Oil-and-Gas_Leasing.pdf)that evaluated the potential budgetary effects of immediately opening certainfederal lands and waters to oil and gas leasing.[iv] (#_edn4) In 2012, the officeestimates that bonuses, royalties and rents to the government from current leasingprovisions would total $10 billion, 6 times the amount the United States loses inannual operating expenses based on underutilized facilities according to GAO. Overa 10 year period, the CBO estimates that the amount from bonuses, royalties andrents from current leasing provisions would total $148.9 billion. The CBO furtherestimated that if certain resources currently off limits were immediately opened tooil and gas leasing, another $7 billion would be realized over that 20-year period.

While these are interesting numbers, IER has found them to be very conservative.For starters, we believe that the CBO is understating the potential for bonus bids inANWR, which they estimate at about $5 billion for the decade of 2013 to 2022,since in FY 2008 (http://www.onrr.gov/ONRRWebStats/Disbursements_Royalties.aspx?report=AllReportedRoyaltyRevenues&yeartype=FY&year=2008&datetype=AY) , totalbonus payments were more than $10 billion.

Further, other analysts have projected much larger receipts for federal and stategovernments from expanded oil and gas leasing. For example, in a February 2009study (http://www.americanenergyalliance.org/images/aea_offshore_updated_final.pdf) ,Joseph Mason estimated that in the long-run, expanded OCS development (notincluding ANWR) would yield an average of $14.3 billion in extra royalty revenueper year. He also estimated an additional $54.7 billion in federal tax revenueannually and $18.7 billion in additional state and local tax revenue that would resultfrom expanded economic activity.[v] (#_edn5)

CBO is vastly restricted in its assessment of potential values that might accrue tothe U.S. Treasury from oil and gas lease sales because a good portion of its workrelies upon U.S. Department of Interior estimates, which are notoriously bad. Forexample, DOI estimated that a February, 2008 lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off thenorthwest coast of Alaska would generate $67 million, but industry actually spent40 times as much — $2.66 billion – for the right to explore for and produce oil andgas from the region.[vi] (#_edn6) CBO’s numbers should therefore be understoodto be limited by the quality of the data it receives from the agencies who report data



http://www.onrr.gov/ONRRWebStats/Disbursements_Royalties.aspx?report=AllReportedRoyaltyRevenues&yeartype=FY&year=2008&datetype=AY

http://www.americanenergyalliance.org/images/aea_offshore_updated_final.pdf





to it about oil and gas prospectivity of a given lease. Clearly, those whose jobsdepend upon finding and producing oil and gas arrive at different conclusions thanthose whose information may be much more limited and academic in nature.

According to a multi-agency government study(http://www.fossil.energy.gov/epact/epact437_final_rpt.pdf) , the federal governmentowns 957 billion short tons of coal in the lower 48 states, of which about 550billion short tons are located in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.The study did not assess what portion of Alaska’s coal resources are federallyowned, though much of them are deemed to be federally owned, due to the lack ofspecific data. Coal resources in Alaska are larger than those in the lower 48 states,exceeding them by about 60 percent.

Within the Powder River Basin, less than 1 percent of the mineral estate is currentlyavailable for mining, containing less than 1 percent of the federal coal (3 billionshort tons).[vii] (#_edn7) Since the percentage is small, we evaluate the entire 957billion short tons of federally owned lower 48 coal at an average price of $15 perton (http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec7_21.pdf) for the subbituminousPowder River Basin coal and $35 per ton(http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec7_21.pdf) for the remainder of thefederal lower 48 coal. Thus, the worth of federally owned coal in the lower 48states to the economy is $22.5 trillion. Added to the oil and natural gas worth to theeconomy, we get a total fossil fuel worth of $150.5 trillion, excluding Alaskan coal.

Conclusion

The U.S. government owns assets both above and below the ground that could bebetter managed through sale or lease. The above the ground assets includeunderutilized buildings as well as roads, levees, rail infrastructure, andhydroelectric generating facilities to name a few. GAO estimated the cost to thetaxpayer of annual expenses to underutilized buildings at $1.66 billion annually.These facilities could be sold but for onerous rules that the government has forenvironmental and structural issues regarding the properties.

In contrast, the government owns an enormously large mineral estate (oil, naturalgas, and coal resources) that has an estimated total worth to the economy of over$150 trillion, over 9 times the national debt. These resources could be leased under

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/epact/epact437_final_rpt.pdf






the right government policies to earn the state and national government royalties,rents, and bonus payments that CBO conservatively estimates could total almost$150 billion over 10 years for the oil and gas leases alone. That figure excludes taxpayments that would be provided to state and national governments from the directand indirect effects of unleashing tens of trillions of dollars of economic activityhere in the United States and the extended benefits of more supplies on reducing thecosts of energy for consumers and businesses. It is well known that abundant,reliable and affordable energy supplies act as fertilizer for economic growth that inturn generates new revenue sources.

It is time to better utilize government assets owned by the U.S. taxpayer, and inturn, unleash the U.S. economy’s potential.

[i] (#_ednref1) General Accounting Office, Managing Federal Real Property,http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/efficiency-effectiveness/federal_property.php(http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/efficiency-effectiveness/federal_property.php)

[ii] (#_ednref2) U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation andInfrastructure, Sitting on Our Assets: The Federal Government’s Misuse ofTaxpayer-Owned Assets, October 2010,http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/111th/Sitting_On_Our_Assets_Report.pdf(http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/111th/Sitting_On_Our_Assets_Report.pdf)

[iii] (#_ednref3) U.S. national debt was $16.2 trillion as of October 30, 2012,http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/)

[iv] (#_ednref4) Congressional Budget Office, Potential Budgetary Effects ofImmediately Opening Most Federal Lands to Oil and Gas leasing, August 2012,http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/08-09-12_Oil-and-Gas_Leasing.pdf (http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/08-09-12_Oil-and-Gas_Leasing.pdf)

[v] (#_ednref5) Joseph R. Mason, The Economic Contribution of Increased OffshoreOil Exploration and Production to regional and National Economies, February2009,http://www.americanenergyalliance.org/images/aea_offshore_updated_final.pdf(http://www.americanenergyalliance.org/images/aea_offshore_updated_final.pdf) and

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/01/17/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/#_ednref1

http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/efficiency-effectiveness/federal_property.php




http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/




http://www.americanenergyalliance.org/images/aea_offshore_updated_final.pdf



http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/09/11/cbo-underestimates-potential/

[vi] (#_ednref6) Oil Daily, Shell Spends Big at Record Alaska Lease Sale, February8, 2008

[vii] (#_ednref7) Departments of Energy, Interior, and Agriculture, Inventory ofAssessed Federal Coal Resources and Restrictions to their Development, August2007, http://www.fossil.energy.gov/epact/epact437_final_rpt.pdf(http://www.fossil.energy.gov/epact/epact437_final_rpt.pdf)

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Rob • 5 months ago

What is the definition of "underperforming" used in this article? Does it mean thatoffices are not at full capacity staffing-wise, or performance quotas not being met,or what metric?

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6/27/13 5:03 PMGAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Oil Reserves' | CNS News

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Rock Springs, Wyo. (BLMPhoto)

GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to EntireWorld’s Proven Oil Reserves'May 11, 2012 - 5:25 PM

(CNSNews.com) - The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that coversthe territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverableoil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government AccountabilityOffice told Congress on Thursday.

The GAO testimony said that the federal government was in “a unique position to influence thedevelopment of oil shale” because the Green River deposits were mostly beneath federal land.

It also noted that developing the oil would have an environmental impact and pose “socioeconomic challenges,” that included bringing “asizable influx of workers who along with their families put additional stress on local infrastructure” and “making planning for growth difficultfor local governments.”

“The Green River Formation--an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming--contains the world's largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director of natural resources and environment said in writtentestimony submitted to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, dependingon available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.

“The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation canbe recovered,” Mittal told the subcommittee. “At the midpoint of this estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable.This is an amount about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves.”

In her oral statement before the subcommittee, Mittal said that developing the shale oil would create wealth and jobs for the country, but alsochallenges for government.

“Being able to tap this vast amount of oil locked within this formation will go a long way to help to meet our future demands for oil. The U.S.Geological Survey, as you noted, estimates that the formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil of which half may be recoverable,” she

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Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment H

Rebecca Ivory

6/27/13 5:03 PMGAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Oil Reserves' | CNS News

Page 2 of 2http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gao-recoverable-oil-colorado-utah-wyoming-about-equal-entire-world-s-proven-oil

said.

“As you can imagine having the technology to develop this vast energy resource will lead to a number of important socioeconomic benefitsincluding the creation of jobs, increases in wealth and increases in tax and royalty payments for federal and state governments,” she said.

“While large-scale oil-shale development offers socioeconomic opportunities it also poses certain socioeconomic challenges that also shouldnot be overlooked,” she testified. “Oil shale development like other extractive industries can bring a sizable influx of workers who along withtheir families put additional stressed on local infrastructure. Development from expansion of extractive industries has historically followed aboom-and-bust cycle making planning for growth difficult for local governments.”

In her written testimony, Mittal noted that three-fourths of the Green River shale oil is under federal land.

“The federal government is in a unique position to influence the development of oil shale because nearly three-quarters of the oil shale withinthe Green River Formation lies beneath federal lands managed by the Department of the Interior’s (Interior) Bureau of Land Management(BLM),” she testified.

The GAO also cited potential environmental impacts from producing oil from the Green River shale that included the need to draw largeamounts of water, possible harm to water quality, and temporary degradation of air quality and the clearing of large amounts of vegetation.

"Developing oil shale and providing power for oil shale operations and other activities will require large amounts of water and could havesignificant impacts on the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater resources," Mittal said in her written testimony. "In addition,construction and mining activities during development can temporarily degrade air quality in local areas. There can also be long-term regionalincreases in air pollutants from oil shale processing and the generation of additional electricity to power oil shale development operations. Oilshale operations will also require the clearing of large surface areas of topsoil and vegetation which can affect wildlife habitat, and thewithdrawal of large quantities of surface water which could also negatively impact aquatic life."

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Rebecca Ivory

A"Plan"for"Transfer"of"the"Public"Lands"Excerpts)taken)from)the)1932)Congressional)Hearings)on))Granting)Remaining)Unreserved)Public)Lands)to)the)States.)

)“It)is)futile)to)criticize)without)suggesting)a)remedy.))This)nation)today)is)

ruled)by)organized)minorities.))That)we)do)not)like)this)system)of)government)is)no)reason)why)we)should)not)use)it)if)it)is)our)only)recourse.))Bureaus)can)not)exist)without)appropriations.))The)Representatives)from)the)western)states)are)comparatively)too)few)in)number,)and)perhaps)too)anxious)to)have)the)Bureaus)expend)funds)in)their)districts)to)offer)much)hope)of)curbing)the)Bureaus,)but)the)eleven)public)land)states)have)twentyMtwo)Senators)and)the)Senate)must)approve)all)Bureau)appropriations.))A)little)group)of)about)half)this)number)have)been)the)balance)of)power)in)the)United)States)Senate)for)the)last)decade.))If)fifteen)or)twenty)of)the)western)Senators)will)unite)on)any)fair)policy)for)the)local)control)of)western)lands)they)can)insure)its)adoption.)

)) “The)Governors)of)the)western)states)possess)the)most)powerful)peace)time)weapon,)publicity.))If)you)gentlemen)will)unite)on)a)policy)of)resistence)to)further)Federal)encroachment,)and)the)curtailment)of)present)superfluous)activity)by)the)Federal)Government)in)affairs)that)should)be)handled)by)officials)answerable)to)the)people)at)the)polls,)and)will)arouse)the)citizens)of)your)commonwealth)your)Senators)will)be)glad)to)carry)out)the)wishes)of)your)people,)and)the)control)of)the)lands)and)resources)of)your)states)will)be)vested)where)they)were)intended)to)be,)in)the)hands)of)those)without)whose)adjacent)residency)they)would)be)worthless.))Lands)and)resources)have)always)been)obtained)or)retained)by)fighting.))Human)nature)has)not)changed.))If)the)West)desires)to)control)its)own)resources)it)must)fight)to)do)so.”))))Thomas)Maddock,)from)a)1931)address)to)the)Western)Governors,)added)the)1932)Congressional)Record)in)the)hearings)on)Granting)Remaining)Unreserved)Public)Lands)to)the)States.)Born)in)Roanoke,)Va.)in)1883,)Thomas)Maddock)first)came)to)Arizona)in)1898)from)Newcastle,)Pa.)A)Republican)from)Coconino)County,)he)was)elected)to)the)first)Arizona)Legislature)and)later)served)as)Secretary)and)State)Chairman)of)the)Arizona)Republican)Party.)He)served)as)Arizona)State)Highway)Engineer)from)1917M1922,)and)was)a)member)of)the)Colorado)River)Commission)from)1923)to)1928.))

))))

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment I

Rebecca Ivory

South Carolina General Assembly 120th Session, 2013-2014

COMMITTEE REPORT February 21, 2013

H. 3552

Introduced by Reps. Clemmons and Harrell S. Printed 2/21/13--H. Read the first time February 19, 2013.

THE COMMITTEE ON INVITATIONS AND MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS

To whom was referred a House Resolution (H. 3552) to express support to the western states of the United States of America and the federal transfer of public lands to the western states, and to urge the United States Congress, etc., respectfully

REPORT: That they have duly and carefully considered the same and recommend that the same do pass: LISTON D. BARFIELD for Committee.

A HOUSE RESOLUTION TO EXPRESS SUPPORT TO THE WESTERN STATES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE FEDERAL TRANSFER OF PUBLIC LANDS TO THE WESTERN STATES, AND TO URGE THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO ENGAGE IN GOOD FAITH COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION TO COORDINATE THE TRANSFER OF TITLE TO THE WESTERN STATES. Whereas, under Article IV, Section 3, of the United States Constitution, “The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States”; and Whereas, the Constitutional Convention intended this provision of the Constitution to maintain the status quo that had been established to transfer federal territorial lands only to create new states with the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the original states; and Whereas, under these express terms of trust, over time the states claiming federal territorial land ceded their western land to the confederated Union to allow the confederated government to dispose of the lands only to create new states and apply the net proceeds of any sales of the lands only to pay down the public debt; and Whereas, the United States Constitution contains no expression of intent to authorize the federal government to indefinitely exercise control over western public lands beyond the duty to manage

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment J

Rebecca Ivory

the lands pending the disposal of the lands to create new states, and therefore the lands should be returned to the western states; and Whereas, in order to promote legitimate federal interests, the western states should upon transfer of the public lands directly to the state where the public land is located agree to affirmatively cede lands for the national park system, the national wilderness preservation system, and lands reserved for federal military use, military parks, and military reservations to the federal government under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, of the United States Constitution, on condition that the lands permanently remain national park lands, and that they not be sold, transferred, left in substantial disrepair, or conveyed to any party other than to the state where the land is located; and Whereas, limiting the ability of western states to access and utilize the public lands’ natural resources within their borders is having a negative impact upon the economy of the western states and therefore the economy of the entire United States; and Whereas, in order to provide a fair, just, and equitable remedy for the federal government’s past and continuing breaches of its solemn promises to the western states, the South Carolina House of Representatives: (1) calls on the federal government to transfer title to all federal public lands within the western states to the state where the land is located; (2) urges the United States Congress to engage in good faith communication, cooperation, and consultation with the western states to coordinate the transfer of the public lands, and supports the western states in these efforts; (3) calls upon the western states to agree, upon transfer of the public lands, to affirmatively cede to the federal government all lands currently designated as part of the National Park System under 16 U.S.C. Section 1a-1, the National Wilderness Preservation System under 16 U.S.C. Section 1131, or for military use, military parks, or military reservations; (4) urges that if any public land in the western states be sold to private owners, [95% of] the net proceeds be paid to the Bureau of the Public Debt to pay down the federal debt; and (5) calls on all other states of the United States to pass a similar resolution in support of the transfer of the federal public lands to the western states. Now, therefore, Be it resolved by the House of Representatives: That the members of the House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, express support to the western states of the United States of America and the federal transfer of public lands to the western states, and urges the United States Congress to engage in good faith communication and cooperation to coordinate the transfer of title to the western states. Be it further resolved that upon its adoption copies of this resolution be fowarded to the United States Department of the Interior, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation, and the Governors, Senate Presidents, and Speakers of the House of Representatives of the 49 other states.

----XX----

HIDALGO COUNTYNEW MEXICO

' RESOLUTION 2013-13 t,

SUPPORTING LEGISLATION TO CREATE THE TRANSFER OF PUBLIC LANDS ACT;DEFINING LANDS TO BE TRANSFERED FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TOTHE STATE; DEVELOPING A MECHANISM FOR THE TRANSFER OF FEDERALPUBLIC LANDS TO THE STATE; AND CREATING THE PUBLIC LANDS TRANSFERTASK FORCE.

WHEREAS, at statehood, the federal govemment promised all states that it would transfer titleb the public lands within the newly created states; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court has called these promises "solemn cdmpacts," "bilateraldgreements," and "husts" that must be performed "in a timely fashion"; and

WHEREAS, the western states are still waiting for the federal government to keep the samepromise to them that it made and kept with all states east ofNew Mexico; and,

WfEnfeS, states like Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Florida Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama,Mississippi were once as much as9}Yo federally controlled for decades; and ,

WHEREAS, these "western states" (as they called themselves at the time) succeeded incompelling the federal government to transfer their public lands because they understood thehistory of the public lands and the duty of the federal government to dispose of the same, anddrey banded together and refused to take ooNo" for an answer because federally controlled publiclands prevented them from (i) generating tax revenues to educate their children, (ii) growingdreir economies, and (iii) responsibly managing their abundant naturdl resources. (See,

for more information); and '

WHEREAS, despite the fact that the promise is the same to dispose of the public lands uponbeing admitted as states, states east of New Mexico have less than 5% federailly controlled landswhile the Westem States (excluding Hawaii) have more than 50% federally controlled lands; and

WHEREAS, state and local government officials have a crucial responsibillity to manage ourdbundant lands and resources sfategically and prudently for the health, safety and welfare of ourcitizens; and

i

WHEREAS, State Representative Yvette Henell (Dist. 51) has introduced legislation during the2013 legislative session to create the Transfer of Public Lands Act to establish the framework forthe orderly transfer of federal public lands to the state; and

:WHEREAS, under the proposed Transfer of Public Lands Act legislation, f'ederal public landswill become state public lands to be managed through local planning f$r the multiple-use(including uses like hunting, fishing, recreation, gtazing, open space, economlc activity, etc.) andthe sustained yield of our abundant natural resources on state public lands; and

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment K

Rebecca Ivory

iWHEREAS, the proposed Transfer of Public Lands Act has received bfoad support fromd-umerous state legislators and other public officials and private individual$ and organizationswithin the state; and

WHEREAS, the State of New Mexico can no longer wait for the federal government to keep itspromise to transfer title of public lands to the state to adequately and respons[bly provide for theeducational equality, the environmental quality of our forests and lands, andlthe economic self-reliance of our state. i

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COI\,flVIISSIONERS OFHIDALGO COUNTY THAT HIDALGO COLINTY wholeheartedly supports the proposedlbgislation to create the Transfer of Public Lands Act in order hold the federal govemment to itsbng-overdue promise to transfer title to public lands to t}re state, to protect the state's publicgducation system and economic vitality, and to preserve the important historical and culturalcontribution that our public lands provide to the State of New Mexico; and

ItsE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT HIDALGO COLTNTY calls upon its fellow cities andtowns, counties and local, state and national elected representatives of New Mexico to exert theirfull influence and authority to secure the passage and implementation of the proposed Transfer ofPublic Lands Act lesislation.

, nlL/ - < -PASSED APPROVED AND ADOPTED this the /wl day of February,20

,!

i -L

1 Chairman

! ^

t . - - ^ )I

$EAL

ATTEST: Ed Kerr. Commissioner i

For questions or more information see www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org or contact: Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, 801.694.8380, [email protected]. !

RESOLUTION (States East of Colorado) TO EXPRESS SUPPORT TO THE WESTERN STATES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR THE TRANSFER OF PUBLIC LANDS TO THE WESTERN STATES, AND TO URGE THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO ENGAGE IN GOOD FAITH COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION TO COORDINATE THE TRANSFER OF TITLE TO THE WESTERN STATES. Whereas, under Article IV, Section 3, of the United States Constitution, “The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States”; and Whereas, the Constitutional Convention intended this provision of the Constitution to maintain the status quo that had previously been established to transfer western public lands only to create new states with the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the original states; and Whereas, under these express terms of trust, over time the states claiming western lands ceded them to the confederated Union to allow the confederated government to dispose of the lands only to create new states and apply the net proceeds of any sales of the lands, if any, only to pay down the public debt; and Whereas, the United States Constitution contains no expression of intent to authorize the federal government to indefinitely exercise control over western public lands beyond the duty to manage the lands pending the disposal of the lands to create new states, and therefore the lands should be now transferred to the western states; and Whereas, States such as Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida had as much as 90% federally controlled lands for decades but they were successful in joining with other states and compelling Congress to transfer title to their public lands; and Whereas, in 1959, the United States granted directly to the State of Hawaii, “the United States’ title to all the public lands and other public property within the boundaries of the State of Hawaii, title to which is held by the United States immediately prior to its admission into the Union.” Whereas, in order to promote legitimate federal interests, the western states should upon transfer of the public lands directly to the state where the public land is located agree to affirmatively cede lands for the national park system, the national wilderness preservation system, and lands reserved for federal military use, military parks, and military reservations to the federal government under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, of the United States Constitution, on condition that the lands permanently remain national park lands, and that they not be sold, transferred, left in substantial disrepair, or conveyed to any party other than to the state where the land is located; and Whereas, limiting the ability of western states to access and utilize the abundant natural resources within their borders locked up in federally controlled lands is having a negative impact

For questions or more information see www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org or contact: Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, 801.694.8380, [email protected]. !

upon the economy of the western states and therefore the economy of the entire United States; and Whereas, in order to provide a fair, just, and equitable remedy for the federal government’s past and continuing breaches of its solemn promises to the western states, the [Legislative Body of ___________ State: (1) calls on the federal government to transfer title to all federally managed public lands within the western states to the state where the land is located; (2) calls upon the members of the [State] Congressional Delegation to exert their utmost abilities to compel the federal government to transfer title to all federally managed public lands to the western states wherein it is located; (3) urges the United States Congress to engage in good faith communication, cooperation, and consultation with the western states to coordinate the transfer of the public lands, and supports the western states in these efforts; (4) calls upon the western states to agree, upon transfer of the public lands, to affirmatively cede to the federal government all lands currently designated as part of the National Park System under 16 U.S.C. Section 1a-1, the National Wilderness Preservation System under 16 U.S.C. Section 1131, or for military use, military parks, or military reservations; (5) urges that if any public land in the western states be sold to private owners 95% of the net proceeds be paid to the Bureau of the Public Debt to pay down the federal debt; and (6) calls on all other states of the United States to pass a similar resolution in support of the transfer of the federally managed public lands to the western states. Now, therefore, Be it resolved by the House of Representatives: That the members of the House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, express support to the western states of the United States of America and the federal transfer of public lands to the western states, and urges the United States Congress to engage in good faith communication and cooperation to coordinate the transfer of title to the western states. Be it further resolved that upon its adoption copies of this resolution be forwarded to the United States Department of the Interior, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the [State] Congressional Delegation, and the Governors, Senate Presidents, and Speakers of the House of Representatives of the 49 other states.

Enrolled Copy S.J.R. 13

1 JOINT RESOLUTION URGING GOVERNOR AND UTAH'S

2 CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO SECURE UTAH STATE

3 LAND

4 2013 GENERAL SESSION

5 STATE OF UTAH

6 Chief Sponsor: Aaron Osmond

7 House Sponsor: Keven J. Stratton

8

9 LONG TITLE

10 General Description:

11 This joint resolution of the Legislature strongly urges the federal government to transfer

12 title to the public lands within the boundaries of the state of Utah to the state, and

13 strongly urges the Governor and Utah's congressional delegation to work to obtain from

14 the federal government the transfer of these lands to this state.

15 Highlighted Provisions:

16 This resolution:

17 < fully supports the provisions of the Transfer of Public Lands Act, as currently

18 signed into law, and strongly urges the federal government to honor its long overdue

19 promise to transfer title to the public lands within the boundaries of the state of

20 Utah to the state;

21 < declares that this action, if taken by the federal government, will allow Utah to

22 provide for the education of its children, grow its economy and job opportunities,

23 and provide for responsible management of the state's abundant natural resources

24 while preserving the important historic and cultural contributions that Utah's public

25 lands provide the citizens of Utah, the nation, and the world;

26 < strongly urges the Governor, the Attorney General, Utah's congressional delegation,

27 Utah's local governments, and the citizens of the state of Utah to join the Legislature

28 in fully supporting the provisions of the Transfer of Public Lands Act, as currently

29 signed into law, in order to hold the federal government accountable for its long

S.J.R. 13 Enrolled Copy

- 2 -

30 overdue promise to transfer title to the public lands within the state of Utah to the state; and

31 < strongly urges the Governor and Utah's congressional delegation to exert their

32 utmost abilities to obtain from the federal government the transfer to this state of the

33 public lands as specified in the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act at as early a

34 period and on such terms as may be beneficial to the state and advantageous to its

35 citizens.

36 Special Clauses:

37 None

38

39 Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah:

40 WHEREAS, at statehood, Utah exacted from the federal government in its Utah

41 Enabling Act the same promise the federal government made and kept with all states east of

42 Colorado -- the promise that the federal government would "extinguish title" to the public lands

43 within the boundaries of the state;

44 WHEREAS, to facilitate the federal government's performance of this promise, Utah

45 agreed, just like states east of Colorado, to "forever disclaim all right and title to the

46 unappropriated public lands" as a means of quieting title;

47 WHEREAS, with certainty of the title, the federal government was able to give

48 certainty of title to purchasers and transferees of the public lands as the federal government

49 disposed of them in honoring statehood contracts like Utah's Enabling Act;

50 WHEREAS, Utah's expectation that the federal government would timely dispose of

51 the public lands as a material part of the benefit of its enabling act bargain is plainly evident

52 from the Utah Senate Joint Memorial Number Four from 1915, which provides, in part, as

53 follows:

54 "In harmony with the spirit and letter of the land grants to the national government, in

55 perpetuation of a policy that has done more to promote the general welfare than any other

56 policy in our national life, and in conformity with the terms of our Enabling Act, we, the

57 members of the Legislature of the State of Utah, memorialize the President and the Congress of


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58 the United States for the speedy return to the former liberal national attitude toward the public

59 domain, and we call attention to the fact that the burden of State and local government in Utah

60 is borne by the taxation of less than one-third of the lands of the State, which alone is vested in

61 private or corporate ownership, and we hereby earnestly urge a policy that will afford an

62 opportunity to settle our lands and make use of our resources on terms of equality with the

63 older states, to the benefit and upbuilding of the State and to the strength of the nation.";


65 the public lands as a material part of our enabling act bargain is plainly evident from the

66 express language of Section 9 of the Utah Enabling Act that "five per centum of the proceeds

67 of the sales of public lands lying within said State, which shall be sold by the United States

68 subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all the expenses

69 incident to the same, shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest

70 of which only shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State";


72 the public lands as a material part of our enabling act bargain is plainly evident from the fact

73 that the "forever disclaim right and title ... until title thereto shall be extinguished [be and

74 remain]" is the very same language contained in the enabling acts of states east of Colorado

75 where the federal government did, in fact, dispose of virtually all of its public lands;


77 the public lands as a material part of its enabling act bargain is evident from the fact that Utah

78 did not bargain, and would never have bargained, away the "incident of sovereignty" of being

79 able to tax the lands to provide essential government services;

80 WHEREAS, the enabling act of North Dakota was done within five years of Utah's and

81 contains virtually the same word-for-word disposal language, but the federal government

82 disposed of all 3% of North Dakota's public lands such that it keeps 100% of its mineral

83 royalties, controls 100% of the access, use, and development of their lands, and, as a

84 consequence, has an abundance of public funds for education and other essential public

85 services;


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86 WHEREAS, according to the United States Government Accountability Office in

87 testimony to Congress in May of 2012, the United States Geological Survey estimates that "the

88 Green River Formation [an area where Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming meet] contains about 3

89 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available

90 technology and economic conditions";

91 WHEREAS, according to the Institute for Energy Research in February of 2013, there

92 is more than $150,000,000,000,000 worth of energy resources locked up in federally controlled

93 lands throughout the West;

94 WHEREAS, given that the federal government continues to run unsustainable,

95 trillion-plus annual deficits, and continues to amass unsustainable national debt and unfunded

96 obligations for social services in the dozens of trillions, Utah faces inevitable reductions in the

97 amount or value of the 45.3% of federal funds that comprise total state spending;

98 WHEREAS, any reduction in federal funds to the state, which comprise the single

99 largest source of Utah's total spending, will disproportionately impact funding for education as

100 the single largest component of Utah's state budget;

101 WHEREAS, in 2012, the Legislature of the state of Utah passed by supermajorities in

102 both houses, and the Governor signed, H.B. 148, Transfer of Public Lands Act, to secure the

103 full rights and benefits of Utah's Enabling Act in the transfer of Utah's public lands to the state

104 to be managed for the multiple use and sustained yield of Utah's abundant resources through

105 local planning;

106 WHEREAS, other mountain west states are beginning to follow Utah's lead with

107 various legislative measures to secure their enabling act promise for the timely disposal of their

108 public lands;

109 WHEREAS, there is no sustainable way to increase personal or corporate taxes

110 sufficient to close even a fraction of the per-pupil funding gap in the state, a gap which is the

111 largest in the nation; and

112 WHEREAS, the ability to derive tax and other revenues from the lands, including

113 through maintaining recreation and heritage areas and other multiple uses within the state, is


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114 the only solution substantial enough to provide for the education equality of Utah's children

115 and the economic self-reliance for the state:

116 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah fully

117 supports the provisions of the Transfer of Public Lands Act, as currently signed into law, and

118 strongly urges the federal government to honor its long overdue promise to transfer title to the

119 public lands within the boundaries of the state of Utah to the state and, by doing so, allow Utah

120 to take its place equally among the states of the Union.

121 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah declares that

122 this action, if taken by the federal government, will allow Utah to provide for the education of

123 its children, grow its economy and job opportunities, and provide for responsible management

124 of the state's abundant natural resources while preserving the important historic and cultural

125 contributions that Utah's public lands provide the citizens of Utah, the nation, and the world.

126 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature strongly urges the Governor, the

127 Attorney General, Utah's congressional delegation, Utah's local governments, and the citizens

128 of the state of Utah to join the Legislature in fully supporting the provisions of the Transfer of

129 Public Lands Act, as currently signed into law, in order to hold the federal government

130 accountable for its long overdue promise to transfer title to the public lands within the state of

131 Utah to the state.

132 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature strongly urges the Governor and

133 Utah's congressional delegation to exert their utmost abilities to obtain from the federal

134 government the transfer to this state of the public lands as specified in the Utah Transfer of

135 Public Lands Act at as early a period and on such terms as may be beneficial to the state and

136 advantageous to its citizens.

137 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution be sent to the United

138 States Department of the Interior, United States Department of Agriculture, the Majority

139 Leader of the United States Senate, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the

140 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of Utah's congressional

141 delegation, and the Governors of the other 49 states.


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142

February 26, 2013 The Honorable Gary R. Herbert Governor of the State of Utah Dear Governor: As a united Board of Education for Jordan School District, and as citizens of the Great State of Utah, we pledge our support for your ongoing efforts to wrest our state lands from Federal control. Indeed, we believe that there exists no realistic and feasible pathway to fiscal sustainability without our ability to utilize these lands for the purposes originally conceived when Utah entered the Union. We find it tragic that the federal government appears determined to follow a course of insolvency, which will drag Utah and every other state with it over the “fiscal cliff.” Yet trillions in natural resources remain untapped and under Federal control. It is in Utah’s best interest to wean itself from a dependency on Federal dollars by utilizing the wealth and resources of our state to create jobs, provide the best possible education for our children, bring fiscal sustainability to our local communities, and secure economic self-reliance and energy independence. Such can only be accomplished if Utah, like so many other states who have gained control of their lands, can successfully realize the same objective. We urge the continued petition of the Federal government to honor Utah’s compact of statehood, as they have to Eastern states, by disposing of public lands. The success enjoyed by other states in securing control of their lands was and is the product of a united front and an unequivocal determination to reject “No” as an answer. These Eastern states succeeded in compelling Congress to transfer title of the public lands and so should we. We stand with you at this critical time, as we endeavor to secure a brighter future for our children and their posterity. The ability to control our lands and prudently draw upon Utah’s vast natural resources is not only an important component of fiscal sustainability, but we declare that there exists no more critical issue upon which our attention and energies should be focused. The Federal government has made a sacred pledge to dispose of these lands. We stand ready to assist you in helping Washington honor that promise. Our prosperity and quality of life depend upon our success. Respectfully,

Board of Education Richard S. Osborn, President Susan Pulsipher, Vice President Janice L. Voorhies, Secretary J. Lynn Crane, Member Peggy Jo Kennett, Member Corbin White, Member Kayleen Whitelock, Member Officers Patrice A. Johnson, Superintendent of Schools D. Burke Jolley, Deputy Superintendent for Business Services

DRAFT

8000 S Redwood Road ● West Jordan, Utah 84088 ● 801-569-5150 ● [email protected]

WESTERNGROWTHCOALITION

The Honorable Gary R Herbert

Governor

Dear Governor:

As a united coalition of government officials and business leaders, and as citizens of the Great

State of Utah, we pledge our support for your ongoing efforts to wrest our state lands from

Federal control. Indeed, we believe that there exists no realistic and feasible pathway to fiscal

sustainability without our ability to utilize these lands for the purposes originally conceived

when Utah entered the Union.

We find it tragic that the Federal government appears determined to follow a course of

insolvency, which will drag Utah and every other state with it over the “fiscal cliff.” Yet trillions in natural resources remain untapped and under Federal control. It is in Utah’s best interest to wean itself from a dependency on Federal dollars by utilizing the wealth and resources of our

state to create jobs, provide the best possible education for our children, bring fiscal

sustainability to our local communities, and secure economic self-reliance and energy

independence. Such can only be accomplished if Utah, like so many other states who have

gained control of their lands, can successfully realize the same objective.

We urge the continued petition of the Federal government to honor Utah’s compact of statehood, as they have to Eastern states, by disposing of public lands. The success enjoyed by

other states in securing control of their lands was and is the product of a united front and an

unequivocal determination to reject “No” as an answer. These Eastern states succeeded in compelling Congress to transfer title of the public lands, and so should we.

We stand with you at this critical time, as we endeavor to secure a brighter future for our

children and their posterity. The ability to control our lands and prudently draw upon Utah’s vast natural resources is not only an important component of fiscal sustainability, but we

declare that there exists no more critical issue upon which our attention and energies should

be focused.

The Federal government has made a sacred pledge to dispose of these lands. We stand ready

to assist you in helping Washington honor that promise. Our prosperity and quality of life

depend upon our success.

Respectfully,

The Western Growth Coalition

City of Herriman City of Riverton City of South Jordan City of Taylorsville City of West Jordan City of West Valley Chamber West South Jordan Chamber of Commerce Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce West Jordan Chamber of Commerce

Craig Dearing Western Growth Coalition Chairman

President/CEO West Jordan Chamber of Commerce

Rick Davis Western Growth member

West Jordan City Manager

7/14/13 10:31 AMBenton on Public Land

Page 1 of 3http://clio.missouristate.edu/FTMiller/LocalHistory/Docs/Benton/30Years/BentonPublicLand.htm

Thomas Hart Benton Springfield-Greene County History

Local History Website of the SMSU Department of History

Thomas Hart Benton, The Public Lands—Their Proper Dispositions(excerpts)

I do not know how old, or rather, how young I was, when I first took up thenotion that sales of land by a government to its own citizens, and to the highestbidder, was false policy; and that gratuitous grants to actual settlers was thetrue policy, and their labor the true way of extracting national wealth andstrength from the soil. It might have been in childhood, when reading the Bible,and seeing the division of the promised land among the children of Israel: itmight have been later, and in learning the operation of the feudal system ingiving lands to those who would defend them: it might have been in early life inTennessee, in seeing the fortunes and respectability of many families derivedfrom the 640 acre head-rights which the State of North Carolina had bestowedupon the first settlers. When I came to the Territory of Missouri in 1815, and saw land exposed to saleto the highest bidder, and lead mines and salt springs reserved from sale, andrented out for the profit of the federal treasury, I felt repugnance to the wholesystem, and determined to make war upon it whenever I should have the power.The time came round with my election to the Senate of the United States in1820: and the years 1824, '26, and '28, found me doing battle for anameliorated system of disposing of our public lands; and with some success. Iresolved to move against the whole system, and especially in favor of graduatedprices, and donations to actual and destitute settlers: I did so in a bill, renewedannually for a long time; and in speeches which had more effect upon the publicmind than upon the federal legislation counteracted as my plan was by schemesof dividing the public lands, of the money arising from their sale, among theStates. [When the settler cultivates the land,] ... the improved condition of the landenables him to pay taxes, and consume durable goods, and to sell the productswhich command the imports which pay duties to the government, and this is the"well-regulated revenue" which comes through the course of circulation, andthrough the "political secretions" of the State, and … commends [itself] above allrevenue derived from the sale of lands. The whole annual receipts from land sales at this time (1850) are about twomillions of dollars: the annual receipts from customs, founded almost entirelyupon the direct productions of the earth, exceed fifty millions of dollars! giving acomparative difference of twenty-five to one cultivation over sales …. I havelooked up respective amounts of federal revenue, into the treasury from these

http://courses.smsu.edu/ftm922f/CCProj/cityhall.htm#City%20Hall

Rebecca Ivory

Rebecca Ivory

Attachment L

Rebecca Ivory



two sources [since the] establishment of the federal government; and thecustoms to have yielded, in that fraction over one thousand millions net--thelands to have yielded a little less than a hundred and thirty millions gross, not 1millions clear after paying all expenses of its sales and management. This is adifference of twenty-five to one--with the further difference of endless futureproduction from one, and no future production from the land once that is to say,the same acre of land is for ever through cultivation, and pays for itself inpurchase. … These Atlantic States were donations from the British crown; and the greatproprietors distributed out of their possessions with a free and generous hand. Afew shillings for a hundred acres, a nominal quitrent, and gifts of a hundred, five hundred, and a thousand acres, to actual settlers: such were the terms on which they dealt out the soil which is now covered by a nation offreemen. Provinces which now form sovereign States, were sold from hand tohand, for a less sum than the federal government now demand for an area oftwo miles square.I quoted the example of all nations, ancient and modern, republican andmonarchical, in favor of giving lands, in parcels suitable to their wants, tomeritorious cultivators; and denied that there was an instance upon earth,except that of our own federal government, which made merchandise of land toits citizens--exacted the highest price it could obtain--and refused to suffer thecountry to be settled until it was paid for. The "promised land " was dividedamong the children or Israel--the women getting a share where there was noman at the head of the family with the daughters of Manasseh. All the AtlanticStates, when British colonies, were settled upon gratuitous donations, ornominal sales. Kentucky and Tennessee were chiefly settled in the same way.The two Floridas, and Upper and Lower Louisiana, were gratuitously distributedby the kings of Spain to settlers, in quantities adapted to their means ofcultivation--and with the whole vacant domain to select from according to theirpleasure. Land is now given to settlers in Canada; and £ 30,000 sterling, hasbeen voted at a single session of Parliament, to aid emigrants in their removalto these homes, and commencing life upon them. The new States of the West were the sufferers by this federal land policy. Theywere in a different condition from other States. In these others, the locallegislatures held the primary disposal of the soil, so much as remained vacantwithin their limits, and being of the same community, made equitable alienationsamong their constituents. In the new States it was different. The federalgovernment held the primary disposition of the soil; and the majority ofCongress (being independent of the people of these States), was less heedfulof their wants and wishes. They were as a stepmother, instead of a naturalmother: and the federal government being sole purchaser from foreign nations,and sole recipient of Indian cessions, it became the monopolizer of vacant landsof the West: and this monopoly, like all monopolies, resulted in hardships tothose upon whom it acted. Few, or none of our public men, had raised theirvoice against this hard policy before I came into the national councils. My ownwas soon raised there against it: and it is certain that a great amelioration hastaken place in our federal land policy during my time: and that the sentiment ofCongress, and that of the public generally, has become much more liberal in



land alienations; and is approximating towards the beneficent systems of therest of the world. But the members in Congress from the new States should notintermit their exertions, nor vary their policy; and should fix their eyes steadilyupon the period of the speedy extinction of the federal title to all the lands withinthe limits of their respective States; to be effected by. Preemption rights, bydonations, and by the sale (of so much as shall be sold), at graduated prices-adapted to the different qualities of the tracts, to be estimated according to thetime it has remained in market unsold--and by liberal grants to objects ofgeneral improvement, both national and territorial.

Excerpt from “The Public Lands—Their Proper Dispositions,” in Thomas HartBenton, Thirty Years’ View (NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1854) 1:102-107.

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