Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Update on S. 750 and the potential impact on NM

On Sunday, I posted about S. 750, the Arizona Borderlands Protection and Preservation Act.  Recall the definition of federal lands would limit its applicability to lands within Arizona.  The Homeland Security Committee had reported out an amended version of the bill which was not yet available to the public, so we didn't know if the definition of federal lands had been changed.

Well now we do.

While the committee markup and report are not available, a source tells me:

°  The definition of federal lands is still limited to Arizona, and
°  The operative language in the bill will only apply from the Mexican border to 100 miles north.

This is still good language for Arizona, but my concerns about the potential impact on New Mexico remain the same:

You don't have to be a genius to see the ramifications if this were to become law.  The BP would have full access to all federal lands in Arizona, but prohibited or limited access to similar lands in NM. If you were a human or drug trafficker, which area would you pick?  And, thanks to Obama-Udall-Heinrich, we New Mexicans have a brand new, half-million acre National Monument on and near our border with Mexico.  New roads are prohibited and off-road vehicular traffic is prohibited.  Patrols would be limited to BLM-approved existing roads and you'd play hell deploying "communications, surveillance, and detection equipment" if you can't go off-road.

Others are telling me the legislation will probably not come to the Senate floor for a vote, as the minority party would tie it up with procedural moves.  There is always the possibility, though, that it could be attached to other legislation moving through the Senate.  There is also a House version of the bill, H.R. 1412, to keep an eye on.

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