The Organ Mountains (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoning hopes of passing an omnibus public lands bill during the lame duck session, it appears that securing the permanent wilderness designation for hundreds of thousands of acres in Doña Ana County is going to have to wait.
Some think wilderness supporters have missed what may be their best chance for a long time of winning the federal government’s highest level of protection for the land.
Reid confirmed Tuesday that plans for an omnibus public lands bill in the lame duck session of Congress are dead. U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., had hoped to pass such a bill and was being pushed to include his Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks Wilderness Act in it.
Not any more.
“In the short time remaining, the Senate is planning to vote on START, a bill to aid 9/11 first responders, a continuing resolution to fund the government for a few months, and some judicial nominees,” Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said Tuesday. “So at this point, it seems unlikely that the wilderness bill will come up for a vote before Congress adjourns.”
Asked whether Bingaman plans to try again next year, McCartin said he will “give it some thought in the coming weeks and decide in the new year.”
Some believe wilderness supporters have missed their best chance in a long time to assign the permanent designation to the land in Doña Ana County. The current congressman representing the area, Democrat Harry Teague, is being replaced in January by Republican Steve Pearce, who has not supported designating land in Doña Ana County as wilderness in the past.
And the U.S. House will be controlled by Republicans starting in January.
Teague was never a proponent of the bill. While he said he supported “efforts to conserve” the land, he also said he remained concerned about border security despite efforts by Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to address such concerns.
Wilderness supporters have been fighting for years for legislation that would permanently protect the land in Doña Ana County. Much of it already has the temporary wilderness study area designation.
A prior version of this posting asserted that Pearce “opposes wilderness altogether,” but Pearce has not made such a definite statement that NMPolitics.net could locate, so the article has been updated to remove that language.