Report on National Association of Counties (NACO) Legislative Conference
Washington, DC - March 1-March 7, 2019
by Joel Bousman, Commissioner, member NACO Board of Directors and Public Lands Steering Committee
March 18, 2019
Saturday, March 2nd: I serve on the Public Lands Steering Committee. All day was devoted to public lands Issues and reports provided to the Public Lands Steering Committee (PLSC). Three resolutions were adopted by the PLSC and later approved unanimously by the NACO Board of Directors as follows:
Policy: Urge the Trump Administration to utilize domestic livestock grazing as a cost-effective and viable method of hazardous fuels reduction on public lands in the West. In accordance with Executive Order 1385, counties urge the administration to require agencies to reactivate suspended non-use AUMs when requested by permittees, unless the agencies have evidence that doing so would be detrimental to the range. Counties recommend that all grazing permits be treated as outcome-based in order to grant federal agencies greater flexibility to respond to conditions on the ground.
Policy: Sponsored by Joel Bousman, Terry Wolf, and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA). NACO supports revising NEPA implementing regulations to require federal agencies to regularly provide meaningful opportunities for states and counties to be involved in the NEPA process for planning and projects on federal lands that may affect the economy, society, and culture of constituents. NACO asks that the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) work closely with state and local governments to revise the NEPA regulations.
Policy: NACO supports greater coordination between federal land management agencies and local governments in implementing wildland fire suppression policies and strategies, with the understanding that a blanket, one-size-fits-all policy is untenable on diverse landscapes. Federal agencies must work with local governments to accomplish their land management goals, including wildfire suppression and risk reduction, and ensure such efforts do not jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of local residents.
We heard from Jim Hubbard, USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources, on Forest Service issues. He discussed the newly authorized 20 year stewardship authority as a means to provide long term stability and willingness for potential contractors to bid on forest management projects. He explained that Good Neighbor Authority is now available to counties and encouraged the formation of forest collaboratives as a means to make effective use of both stewardship agreements and Good Neighbor Authority. I asked Mr. Hubbard to encourage the Forest Service to share resources between regions as a means to help provide expertise, especially in the area of forest management.
We heard from Brian Steed, Acting BLM Director, about improving the regulatory environment, increasing engagement with state and local officials, and the need for BLM to renew their obligation to support multiple use and sustained yield of our natural resources.
Sunday March 3rd: Western Interstate Region (WIR) Board of Directors Meeting. We heard a presentation by Vicki Christiansen, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. The Chief discussed the ways the Forest Service is using their new authorities (stewardship agreements and good neighbor authority) granted in the 2018 omnibus and Farm bills to engage with county governments to improve landscape health, reduce wildfire risk to communities, and create new opportunities for economic growth in national forest counties. The WIR leadership also had the opportunity to have lunch with Chief Christiansen and further discuss how more local involvement might look like on the ground at the local level.
The Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Recovery at FEMA discussed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA). The DRRA modifies several Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) programs to better assist state and local disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery efforts. He discussed how counties can tap into new federal resources for disaster assistance.
The Deputy Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, talked about Sage Grouse. Secretarial Order 3353 signed by the Secretary of the Interior, is aimed at strengthening collaboration between the BLM and its state and local partners, with the shared goal of conserving and protecting Sage Grouse without impeding economic opportunities. The message was that BLM intends to allow for more state involvement in sage grouse management and more reliance on state developed conservation plans.
Monday March 4th: Wyoming Commissioners met again with Forest Service Chief Christiansen. Issues discussed that pertain to Sublette County included a more in depth discussion of partnering with counties using Stewardship Agreements and Good Neighbor Authority. Also implementation of Executive Order 13855, "Promoting Active Forest Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and Other Federal Lands to Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk". We discussed possibilities to correct errors in the Bridger Teton Roadless Maps, Greater Sage Grouse Plan amendments, and involving Counties in the NEPA process. Having up to date county economic profiles and County Natural Resource Plans in place will help greatly. In addition, I have been working with Chief Christiansen to develop a Forest Service Guidebook that provides direction to the Forest Service on what their responsibilities are in working with local government and advises counties on their responsibility as well. We hope the final product will be available in June. We have been working on this for two years now.
I spent all Monday afternoon in the NACO Board of Directors business meeting approving resolutions and hearing reports, including a report from the White House Office of Intergovernmental Relations and an overview of NACO 2019 Federal Policy Agenda. Resolutions adopted by the NACO Board of Directors set the priorities and direction for NACO staff in working with Congress, the Executive Branch, and Congressional Staff.
Tuesday March 5th: Wyoming Commissioners met with Acting Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt. The main focus of our meeting with Acting Secretary Bernhardt was how to involve Counties in the NEPA process. I provided some examples developed with the help of Mike Henn (SCCD) and Caleb Hiner, Pinedale BLM Field Manager on what possibilities might look like for Sublette County. We will be following up with a meeting with counties and Governor Gordon in the near future to discuss how the state can help perform NEPA and how the state can coordinate NEPA efforts with counties. A take home from this meeting was that Mr. Bernhardt believes strongly in the concept of "federalism", and as such will be relying heavily on Governors to have more input into federal lands management as well as endangered and threatened species. He pointed out that Wyoming appears to be taking the lead in addressing wildlife corridors. We discussed with Mr. Bernhardt how counties having up to date natural resource plans and up to date socio economic profiles will be a big help as BLM tries to improve the NEPA process. Wyoming Commissioners also met with Representative Cheney, Senator Enzi, and Senator Barrasso.
I also participated in a NACo Public Lands Leadership Meeting with Bipartisan Congressional Staff. We discussed Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and the support from counties to increase the payments to counties with under 5000 population who are negatively impacted by population caps. This would not have any effect on Sublette County. I talked to the congressional staff about the need for a permanent, mandatory revenue stream to fund PILT. I suggested considering the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), possibly a portion of the federal 2% deduction of federal mineral royalties, or a portion of the existing tax on recreational equipment since a large part of our obligations to maintain roads, search and rescue on public lands have to do with recreation.
Update on PILT and SRS: The FY 2019 omnibus appropriations bill incudes full funding of PILT ($500 million) and a two year reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools (SRS). Fiscal year 2018 SRS payments will be sent out to counties in the spring of 2019 on the normal schedule. Senators Crapo and Wyden have unveiled a bill, The Forest Management for Rural Stability Act, to create an SRS endowment fund to provide certainty in funding for forest counties. Payments to counties would no longer be subject to the annual appropriations process and would come from interest on the endowment as well as continued SRS payments.
I participated in the NACO Press Conference on PILT and SRS Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. The press conference can be viewed by going to the NACO website. Numerous Representatives and Senators spoke and it seemed very well received.
NACO PILT/SRS Press Conference on YouTube Commissioner Joel Bousman is at the 42:00 mark.
Wednesday March 6th: Wyoming commissioners met with the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). This council provides direction to both Forest Service and BLM on how to implement NEPA. We discussed ideas on how to make the NEPA process more efficient, ie, length of the documents and timelines. We emphasized using county-prepared analyses, including socioeconomic profiles. We encouraged requiring agencies to accept counties as members of an interdisciplinary team if counties so desired and were willing to bring the necessary expertise to the table. We also asked CEQ to redefine "cooperating agency" to always include states and counties having jurisdiction by law or special expertise.
Wyoming commissioners also met with representatives from the Bureau of Land Management. The agenda included Sage Grouse Plan Amendments and the need to align with the State of Wyoming Executive Order. We talked about migration corridors and Energy Development Policy. We also discussed other energy projects in Wyoming, including the Wright Coal Leasing EIS, Converse County Oil and Gas EIS, and Buffalo RMP. We updated BLM on the 2019 Raptor Symposium sponsored by Campbell County. We discussed involving counties in the NEPA process, using Socioeconomic Profiles and County Natural Resource Plans. We also discussed implementation of Executive Order 13855, "Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and Other Federal Lands to Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk". In regards to our grazing permittees, we emphasized the need to use "outcome based" grazing management, adaptive management, and to authorize all BLM Field Managers to have the flexibility to issue "temporary non-renewable" aums to grazing permittees to be able to react to conditions of the ground.
At the NACO General Session, we heard from various speakers, including Alexander Acosta, U.S. Secretary of Labor, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Co-Founder of America Online Steve Case, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.
Many, many thanks to Bailey Schreiber, WCCA Natural Resource Attorney, for setting up the numerous meetings for our Wyoming commissioners in attendance and taking the lead on developing our meeting agendas and keeping us from getting lost going back and forth to numerous meeting with agencies and on the hill.
Joel Bousman, Sublette County Commissioner and member of NACO Board of Directors
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