Today Democracy Failed.

At 11:20 EST today, the House Resource Committee approved new fee-demo language introduced by Chairman Pombo. They then voted in favor of recommending that the bill go to the full House for a vote. That's important news to everyone receiving this message, but that is not the news I wish to emphasize at this time. I want you to understand how little this hearing represented a democratic process. Information such as I'm about to share is not taught in any civics class.

HR 3283 is the bill in question. It was introduced by Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH). Mr. Regula has been a longtime supporter of recreation user fees and when Chair of the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, it was Mr. Regula who introduced language into budget language that resulted in the authorization of the fee-demo program.

Mr. Regula is also closely linked with the industry group the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). ARC has stated in Congressional Testimony that one of the purposes for its creation in 1979 was to change existing laws that prohibited the charging of recreation user fees on America's public lands. ARC's motivation was straight forward - they are an industry association with interest in profiting from pay-to-play recreation. They needed to pass legislation that would allow recreation fees to be charged. Without such legislation, their efforts to commercialize public lands would be forever stymied. Mr. Regula is the recipient of ARC's highest award, the "Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award". Mr. Regula is, I suggest, doing the ARC's bidding.

The Chair of the Appropriations Committee controls the pursue string of the House. There is perhaps no more powerful person in the House than the Chair of this committee especially when the Chair uses his position to curry favor upon Congressmen who support his personal agenda and uses his position to block funding of legislation that originates from Congressmen who have opposed the Chairman's personal agenda.

Several years ago, Mr. Regula term limited out as Chair of the Appropriations Committee and is not currently the Chair of that committee. If he wins his reelection bid in November and is returned to the House for a 17th term, he will be Chair of the Appropriations Committee once more.

Everyone in the House is keenly aware of that fact. Everyone in today's markup for Mr. Regula's pet bill, HR 3283 knew that.

Mr. Regula conspicuously sat in the front row of today's hearing watching carefully to see who would support him and who would dare to oppose him. He sat where he did, so that everyone on the Resources Committee could get a good look at him and so that he could keep an attentive ear upon everything said by each committee member.

To understand how obvious Mr. Regula's threat hung over today's proceedings, Mr. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) asked point blank whether Mr. Regula "would remember those who voted favorably upon his legislation. " Everyone understood what was at stake. The interests of the committee were not upon the legislation before them. The interests of the committee were concerned ONLY with not offending Mr. Regula and in gaining his favor.

The ranking minority member, Mr. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who had spoken out bravely and most eloquently in opposition to the passage of Mr. Regula's bill offered the final words after the vote was taken. He said that he had intended to request that a roll-call vote be taken, but because Mr. Regula was sitting in the front row, he would not call for such a vote.

Today Democracy Failed.

Anyone listening to today's markup of the fee-demo legislation would come away, as I have done, with a clear understanding that our political system is not working as our founding fathers intended. Our political system is not working as we are taught it works in our schools.

Today the presence of one, all-powerful Mid-Western Congressman from a state that has little public lands and a mere 70 acres of Wilderness dictated policy for over 600,000,000 acres of federally managed public lands including 100,000,000 acres of Wilderness. One man, representing the interests of an all-powerful special interest group, carried more weight than all of the citizens of this nation. One man carried more weight than the democratic process itself.

Today's vote is a setback to outdoor enthusiasts who have opposed fee-demo. Today's vote means that Mr. Regula's bill will now go before the full house where, I fully expect, Democracy will fail once again because of the extraordinary power and vindictiveness Mr. Regula is prepared to bring to bear in order to pass his bill.

The GOOD NEWS is.... Mr. Regula may be the King of the House of Representatives, but his heavy-handed approach will not work in the Senate. The Senate has a very different approach to what is, and is not, appropriate in the way of recreation user fees. They have already passed the only fee legislation they care to pass, S.1107. The Senate bill, although it deals with user-fees, is totally unlike the bill that exists in the House. The House bill can never become law, unless the Senate were to introduce and pass legislation that was similarly worded to Regula's HR 3283.

Democracy failed today in the House. Yet I remember from civics class that in America we have checks and balances and for this reason we have both a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Today the House was representative of the power of one man and the corporate powers who stand behind him. Call me naive if you must, but I retain hope that the democratic process and the idea of one man - one vote, lives on in the Senate.

The fight goes on.

Scott

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Scott Silver
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Ave.
Bend, OR 97701

phone: 541-385-5261
e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org
Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

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