Representative wants to cap amount of federal recreational land

The amount of federal recreational land could not be increased if pending legislation passes. Rep Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia) reintroduced the Acre In, Acre Out Act (H.R. 792), which would stop the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, United States Fish & Wildlife Service and the United States Forest Service from increasing their territorial holdings. The bill first became available online on the congressional website on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015. The bill would require the agencies to offer for sale an equal amount of real estate whenever they acquire new land. It would not affect acquiring easements to facilitate access to existing public land, however. The government would have to offer land for sale at local fair market value. If it could not make a sale within six months on the market, it could lower the price by 10 percent a month. (The six-month period would not include any days in which the land was withdrawn from the market.) And the agencies could not keep the money from any lands they sell. The legislation says all proceeds would have to go directly to the United States Treasury to lower the national debt...more