Interior Bill Includes BLM Provision

September 16, 1999

The Interior Department appropriations bill includes a provision that gives adequate time to the Bureau of Land Management to complete the process of renewing expiring grazing permits. The Senate tabled an amendment that would have required BLM to complete permit renewals by the end of 2001.

That would not have given BLM adequate time to process all the renewals, says the Public Lands Council, especially since each permit renewal requires an extensive environmental analysis. More than 5,000 permits for grazing cattle on BLM lands expire this year; another 2,000 expire in 2000.

"With the expiring permits, western family ranchers face a potential crisis that could undermine their ability to graze cattle on federal lands which could force them to sell their ranches to developers," said Mike Byrne, a Tulelake, CA, rancher and chairman of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association federal lands committee.

The amendment defeated on a 58-37 vote also would have eliminated the process for public input by renewing permits for only one to two years. The BLM is not required to get public input for one to two year permit extensions.

Currently, grazing permits are renewed for a maximum of 10 years. That increases financial security by allowing western family ranchers holding permits to make business decisions that take the permits into account, says the PLC.