New Interior order undermines conservation bill Trump campaigned on, critics say

Critics say a new order from the Interior Department kneecaps a conservation effort that President Trump routinely campaigned on. Trump regularly touted the Great American Outdoors Act on the campaign trail, a bipartisan bill he signed in August that solidifies more than $900 million in funding each year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The fund is designed to allow the federal government to acquire land for parks, trails and conservation purposes, but a Friday order from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt gives governors and even county commissioners the ability to veto any purchases of private land by requiring “written expression of support.” “It’s a clear interference with private property rights and that the big irony here is that it's coming from the party claiming to support personal liberty and private property rights. They're trying to give every county commission and governor in the country veto power over private land owners who want to sell their land to the government at fair market rates,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a public lands watchdog group. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the law doesn’t allow for state and local officials to have this kind of authority.President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reverse many Trump administration environmental policies. The order also requires the department to prioritize land acquisitions for the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, something that would sideline the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)...MORE

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“It’s a clear interference with private property rights and that the big irony here is that it's coming from the party claiming to support personal liberty and private property rights.

If private party A wants to use private capital to acquire property from B, that is a private exchange between two parties and no one should have the right to interfere.

If government agency A wants to use taxpayer money to acquire property from B, that is when the public should have some say in how their taxes are spent. 

What the enviros are saying here is that they want no interference with federal acquisition of private property. They don't give a wit about property rights.