12-26 IAN Omnibus

 A $915 billion omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government through September 2012 recently passed Congress and is headed to President Obama’s desk. Dustin Van Liew, Public Lands Council executive director and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association director of federal lands, commended lawmakers for including critical policy provisions related to livestock grazing as well as greenhouse gas reporting requirements in the spending bill. He said the PLC and NCBA encourage President Obama to waste no time in signing the bill into law. Here’s Van Liew “ The reason that the bill is so important is that it provides a two-year extension of a provision to allow federal lands grazing permit renewals, despite a backlog of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, and a provision to allow grazing permits to be transferred without undergoing a NEPA analysis as long as the permit remains under current terms and conditions. This commonsense grazing provision will continue to provide livestock producers relief from the uncertainty and instability of the federal lands grazing permit renewal process,” Van Liew said. “Livestock producers face a constant threat of environmental activists filing lawsuits to end grazing on federal lands. We commend Congress for taking a critical step to providing stability to the federal grazing permit process while also ensuring federal lands ranchers are able to continue producing safe, wholesome beef and lamb.”