The United States Senate did something on Monday that almost everyone is wildly happy about, and it does not involve placing all the members under conscious sedation for a month, either. From the Washington Post:

The bill, which the Congressional Budget Office projects would save taxpayers $9 million, enjoys broad support in the House. The lower chamber is poised to take it up after the mid-February recess, and White House officials have indicated privately that the president will sign it. The measure protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation’s most stringent protection, which prohibits even roads and motorized vehicles. It permanently withdraws more than 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks, including Yellowstone, and permanently authorizes a program to spend offshore-drilling revenue on conservation efforts.

The legislation establishes four new monuments, including the Mississippi home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers and the Mill Springs Battlefield in Kentucky, home to the decisive first Union victory in the Civil War.



(I am particularly happy about the Evers monument, having once stood in the driveway of what is now called 2232 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, MS, a house that, in 1963, was firebombed in May and, in June, was the site of the murder from ambush of Medgar Evers. It was a hallowed, haunted place.)

Perhaps the most significant change the legislation would make is permanently authorizing a federal program that funnels offshore drilling revenue to conserve a spread of sites that includes major national parks and wildlife preserves, as well as local baseball diamonds and basketball courts. Authorization for the popular program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), lapsed months ago due to the partial government shutdown and other disputes. Liberals like the fact that the money allows agencies to set aside land for wildlife habitat. Conservatives like the fact that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for it.

Congress is now set to reauthorize the fund in perpetuity, though it will not make its spending mandatory. Congressional funding for the program has “fluctuated widely” since its inception in 1965, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report. Less than half of the $40 billion that has piled up in the fund during its five decades of existence has been spent by Congress on conservation efforts.

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The bill also blocked mining efforts near two major national parks, including Yellowstone. Far be it from me to suggest that all the pressure concerning the idea of a Green New Deal and, with it, a renewed energy in the environmental community, may have concentrated various senatorial minds a little bit on this issue, but it's a good deal for the country anyway. As Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico said, continuing his family's proud history as defenders of the country's wild places, put it on the floor of the Senate last week:

While there are certainly other measures I wish we had included in this package, overall, this bill can pass both chambers -- on strong bipartisan votes. I am looking forward to this Congress showing its strong support for keeping public lands in public hands, and protecting them for future generations.

So, for at least the next five minutes, I decline to be cynical about things like that.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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