Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson successfully defended grazing on public lands in the West during the subcommittee markup on the Interior and Environment Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2011.  Simpson, who is Ranking Member of the House subcommittee that funds the Bureau of Land Management and other land management agencies, offered an amendment to strike language from the bill that would have created a voluntary grazing buyout. 

 I asked him if the  EPA was overstepping their bounds. “I would have to say yes, they’re out of control. They’re trying to regulate things that most people think are ridiculous. The EPA scares me more than any other federal agency.”

 Simpson’s logic is that in the West, if you don’t graze on public lands, you don’t graze at all.   He said that creating a federal buyout program is a dangerous step toward ending grazing on public lands, which would have a devastating impact on local economies throughout the West and would have unintended consequences on the environment.

 In addition to striking buyout language from the bill, Simpson’s amendment inserted language to allow the BLM to continue working through the growing backlog of grazing permits that need to be reprocessed.