The American Spectator : Toxic Omnibus Anti-Energy, Anti-Civil Liberties Stew

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Toxic Omnibus Anti-Energy, Anti-Civil Liberties Stew

By John Berlau on 3.31.09 @ 6:09AM

Rammed through by Reid and Pelosi and signed into law yesterday, the whopping Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 is a huge stinker all Obama's own.

In discussing the 1,248-page Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, signed yesterday by President Barack Obama after being rammed through the House and Senate by use of unprecedented parliamentary maneuvers designed to cut off debate, two aphorisms come to mind. The first is the old saying that sunshine is the best disinfectant. But the second is that, at least for many members of Congress, it's easier to disguise the flavor of spoiled ingredients if one throws them into a big toxic stew.

Like its cousin, the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill that President Obama earlier signed into law, the Omnibus lands bill contains several bills from previous sessions of Congress wrapped into one. The final legislative package -- which passed the House last week after clearing the Senate the previous week -- actually contains a whopping 170 different bills, according to CNSNews.com. As House Natural Resources Committee ranking Republican Doc Hastings of Washington put it in a House floor speech, "This legislative strategy behind the creation of this…was to make a bill that, like AIG, is too big to fail."

And as with the AIG bailout, there will be plenty of regrets for this big rush job's lack of initial scrutiny. Like its Omnibus cousin, this bill contains plenty of earmarks that stand out for their parochialism, like $3.5 million in federal funds for the local 450th anniversary celebration of St. Augustine, Florida. But unlike the earlier Omnibus spending bill, this bill also contains provisions that will be even more destructive to the economy and individual liberties than overspending.

This time, President Obama simply cannot claim, as he did with the earmarks in the previous Omnibus bill that he signed, that this is last year's business and we will spend better next year. This is because, under the guise of "managing" federal lands, the bill, according to Hasting's analysis, permanently bans energy exploration -- even for environmentally correct sources like wind and solar -- in more than 1 million acres, puts 2 million acres of public land off limits to transportation including even bicycles and wheelchairs, and imposes fines and even imprisonment for the collecting of common rocks and fossils.

In signing the bill, Obama proclaimed, "This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted; but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share." But this analysis by Robert J. Smith, longtime free-market conservationist who is my colleague at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, pointed out that the bill actually "lock[s] up tens of millions of acres of public lands in categories that much of the public will never be able to use, destroying energy production, mining, timber harvest, grazing, and recreation."

But the bill's sheer length meant its worst parts had yet to be digested, Smith argued. "This is another massive 'mystery meat' bill with well over a thousand pages of bills which no one has read or understands," Smith wrote.

As more and more people of diverse viewpoint began to "read and understand" the bill, some bipartisan opposition mounted to many of its provisions. But "driven by the shameful lust of Congressional members to bring pork to their districts at the expense of American freedom," as Smith put it, more and more pork was added to the stew. Plus, the head chefs severely limited the ability to take the most harmful ingredients out of the pot.

As the Democratic Congressional leadership attempted to ram through this bill, it met unexpected resistance to many of the bill's provisions. And not just from Republicans, nor even from blue dog Democrats. House leaders skipped entirely the jurisdiction of two relevant committees: Agriculture, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Forest Service, which is actually a part of the Department of Agriculture; and Judiciary, which has jurisdiction over bills that create or make changes to the nation's federal crimes.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., was so upset he became one of four Democrats to vote against the bill of his own leadership. And serious reservations were also expressed by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee -- that notorious Blue Dog (Not!) John Conyers, D-Mich. And none other than the American Civil Liberties Union signed a bipartisan letter protesting the criminal penalties in the bill's provisions regarding "paleontological resources preservation."

This section, in the name of protecting fossils on federal lands, makes it a crime to "excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface or attempt to excavate, remove, damage, or otherwise alter or deface any paleontological resources located on Federal land" without special permission from the government. Penalties for violations include up to five years imprisonment, and "paleontological resources" are loosely defined as all "fossilized remains…that are of paleontological interest and that provide information about the history of life on earth."

"Paleontological resources" are defined so broadly and the offenses defined so loosely that many fossil lovers -- from scientists to amateur rock collectors -- became concerned that it would criminalize innocent error. After all, many common fossil rocks could be "of paleontological interest" and "provide information about the history of life on earth." Tracie Bennitt, president of the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, wrote that "we can visualize now a group of students unknowingly crossing over an invisible line and ending up handcuffed and prosecuted. An honest mistake is just that and should be treated accordingly."

As word spread of these provisions, this association was later joined in this objection by CEI, NCPPR, and two groups that don't normally sign on to letters with free-market organizations about lands bills -- the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the ACLU! "We are concerned that the bill creates many new federal crimes using language that is so broad that the provisions could cover innocent human error," the letter from the diverse coalitions stated. "Above all, we are concerned that a bill containing new federal crimes, fines and imprisonment, and forfeiture provisions may come to the House floor without first being marked up in the House Judiciary Committee."

Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers had his own concerns about his committee being bypassed. In February, Conyers wrote to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall that while he understood and supported the "attempt to pass it in the House without amendment to ensure it reaches the President," he "regret[ed] that we will be unable to make appropriate refinements to the provisions in the Judiciary Committee's jurisdiction before the bill becomes law."

But these and other concerns about the bill didn't have much of a chance to be debated. On March 11, the House leadership brought the bill up under "suspension," a procedure where the minority's "motion to recommit" with instructed changes is denied, but the bill needs two-thirds for passage. The bill failed to get two-thirds support of the House by two votes.

So the Senate "preconferenced" the bill by glomming on the hundreds of pages that had failed in the House to an unrelated House bill protecting battlefields that had already passed. Then on March 25, because of the Senate change, the House brought up the bill as a Senate amendment to the House battlefields bill under a rule forbidding a motion to recommit and requiring only a simple majority to pass. The bill passed 285-140, with four Democrats voting against, but 38 Republicans voting "aye."

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About the Author

John Berlau is director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and blogs at OpenMarket.org.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment

Bill Rawlings| 3.31.09 @ 7:40AM

Its hard to see how Democratic Rule has anything to do with Democracy.

Sue Bican| 3.31.09 @ 8:07AM

John,
I am mortified by this bill! What can you or others do to EXPOSE this bill for what it IS?
Let's start screaming from the mountaintops about our government- Soon we will be no better off than Cuba!
Hey- Why haven't we heard from mainstream media about Global Warming Debunked? Man has been cleared of any culpibility. Go to Heartland Institute's 2nd Annual Conference on Climate Change--- This SHOULD mean no Cap/Trade, regulations on drilling, using nuclear energy, etc. Please check it out and scream it out!! This is HUGE!! Say good-bye to the Environmentalist hooey!! Please spread the word as I have by contacting everyone you know- Listen to Lord Muncton- former advisor to Margaret Thatcher- He discovered a decimal point had been changed....
Good luck investigating!

Waiting| 3.31.09 @ 8:29AM

How long will it be before the word "impeach" is brought up? How much $%&)@# will the people take???

Deborah| 3.31.09 @ 8:36AM

Who knows whether or not the "people" know any of this. Where do people get their news?

This crap has gone down so quickly and so quietly that the American people don't know about a lot of it. That was the plan. That's why the American people aren't screaming yet. I don't even know how legitimate reporters can keep up with it all.

I feel that I am a fairly informed person, but it takes time to get informed, and time is not what a lot of Americans have (especially when both are working and have kids). That's why it's the older folks of the country's responsibility to make sure the younger folks are informed. E-mail and call all you know. Send this article everywhere so it can spread that way. It is our responsibility to get the word out. We can't rely on the Pravda Press.

By the way, I don't include the good folks at The American Spectator in that term. Thanks for all you do.

JamesJ| 3.31.09 @ 8:45AM

This is what happens after 40 years of public school indoctrination. Americans want to be told how to live, think, what to eat, etc. Freedom is too tiresome. Heavy sigh

Big J| 3.31.09 @ 9:23AM

Our political system is rapidly becoming a dictatorship. This is absolutely ridiculous!

Between the massive government spending, the government acquisition of private enterprise, limiting pay, cramming legislation down our throats, I have had enough!

Tea parties are a great idea, and I will be attending one on April 15th. It will not stop there, however. I firmly believe that we are on the brink of revolution. There is strong rumbling rapidly turning into a roar. Pretty soon these political disconnects located in Washington will hear us all load and clear.

Joe | 3.31.09 @ 10:29AM

Yes Virginia we have change (we can not believe in). I hope the Republicans remember how they were treated by this administration and Congressional leadership, not to mention the public.

Bill| 3.31.09 @ 10:59AM

We the people can and must react. Eighteen states allow recall petitions of those in congress. So get a recall petition started in those states. Attend the tea parties, write your congress men and women and let them know your feelings. Organize a march around their homes and in Washington. Put pressure on your local news paper to start reporting both sides of the issue. Join a local action group. The way Christians are being attacked it is time they also join together and deman that their interest also be taken into account and that the government stay out of their lives. Remember charitable tax deduction elimination is just down the street. This will have a devastating impact on world missions that meet the needs of the suffering not to mention the work that is done in this country.

Skep41| 3.31.09 @ 11:46AM

"We are concerned that the bill creates many new federal crimes using language that is so broad that the provisions could cover innocent human error,"

Sounds like Stalin's Constitution which made every human activity potentially illegal. No debate, no disclosure; we dont really know what is in this monstrosity. This is truly the end of democracy and freedom. A few legislative nabobs push a giant omnibus bill through and it is duly signed by their Marxist cohort in the Oval Office. Screw you, you paleantological scum--we're saving the planet and all you care about is your lousy fossils! What hubris these New Age Stalinists demonstrate as they curb the unclean habits of us lesser breeds. I'd like to know the names of the thirty-eight RINOs who voted for this outrage. The funny thing is that once the Dems have finally ended the fiction that this is a democracy where the powers of the government are restrained by the Constitution they will plunder the natural resources that they are so eager to protect right now. When their idiotic policies completely bankrupt the nation (we wont have to wait long for that) they'll be drilling in ANWAR and building coal-fired electrical generating plants just like their Chicom 'Peace Partners' are doing. Socialist countries have much worse environmental records than capitalist ones. But the main point here is that they have managed to accomplish this without any debate in Congress, notice by the media or opposition by the so-called opposition party.

james| 3.31.09 @ 1:09PM

It's all really terrible, but this bill is mostly about energy production and is a test-run for banning, at a later date, all off-shore drilling.
The country is in the hands of communists, and someone needs to step up and start saying so. These are not Leftists, or Socialists, or Progressives. These are Stalinists, and if they aren't stopped soon they are never going to be stopped.
Pray for a sign in the NY special election today. I am prayerful but not at all hopeful.

bobmontgomery| 3.31.09 @ 3:01PM

Obama is deranged and mad with power. When the sixty minutes guy asked him if he was punch drunk, he was closer than he thought.

Melvin| 3.31.09 @ 5:14PM

"Somebody needs to stand up!" This is all I hear constantly and from many of the good people who regularly post here. We don't need somebody to stand up and say No! We need all of us to stand up and say 'No!"
But the problem and the corrupt government slimy weasels know full well all the American public will do is yadda, yadda, yadda.
The American public at large is no better than the damn U.N. talk talk talk talk talk. Other's pipe up we need a revolution, fine lets do something, but someone has to show up first. Sadly Americans have the attitude of, "Let George do it," because many are just to fat and lazy to do anything about stopping this madness.
This bill is unconstitutional because it completely bypassed all the checks and balances that were in place to stop this madness.
Pelosi and Reid are criminally negligent in allowing this criminality to take place.
We cannot wait till the 2010 mid-term elections the Country could be totally destroyed by then.
We and I mean we have to join together and stop this enablers of tyranny.
Government land is our land and we should be able to use it for recreation and not the environmental terrorists who wrote this bill to exclude humans have finally gotten their golden egg.
I told you many times this and I'll keep reminding those who post in American Spectator I didn't spend twenty years in the military defending our freedom to have some jug eared thug take my and yours freedom away from and put me in prison for five years for picking up a damn rock.

ben| 3.31.09 @ 6:33PM

The government has no power unless we willfully submit to them. They have no resources unless we provide it for them. This is true of all governments, every type. People want to do something but don't think they can. By sitting around and not taking action we are willfully submitting to the government and allowing them to have power over us, instead of asserting our power over them.

Denise-Mary| 3.31.09 @ 6:50PM

Ben, with respect, just what action would you suggest we take? I've written my congresspeople and senators, to no avail - not even a canned response anymore, regardless of the topic. I've stood in pouring rain on the steps of the Federal Courthouse here in Seattle, with nary a media person to be found to document the protest. Short of voting every one of the sob's out of office in 2010 - assuming we even have that long - I am out of ideas. Anyone???

Charles| 3.31.09 @ 7:54PM

Melvin et al, do y'all really think there will be any more elections? We might see a mid-term in two years but I seriously doubt we'll ever see another election. The Rulers have consolidated all power and will wield it ruthlessly. Protests do not work. Our Rulers do not listen, they only dictate.
Our only hope now is the Legions: they swear to serve and protect the Constitution, not the Rulers.

Anthony| 3.31.09 @ 8:06PM

If we take a moment and remember that when the election was getting interesting, with Gov. Palin's entrance, and gas was $4.00 a gal, the Dems put on one of their Harry Reid dog & pony shows and passed legislaton that expanded off shore oil production and other domestic production.
That bill was a cynical political ploy that was never intended to be implimented and was only passed to get the issue out of the campaign cycle.This massive energy starving bill is proof of that. Congress is not only out of control, it is a deliberate lying body.
Denise you want solutions, buy plenty of ammo because it's going to get ugly real quick.
Melvin, these people are not just corrupt, they are America destroying Marxists!!!

stmichrick| 3.31.09 @ 11:48PM

Is there a political limit to the economic and constitutional damage these unelected Congressional leaders can do? What will be the legacies of Reid and Pelosi? I have a hard time understanding what their contribution to American society is.

They seem to care only about what the big traditional (extreme environmental, organized labor, sexual lifestyle groups) Democrat special interests want.

Nothing else.

Osamas Pajamas| 4.1.09 @ 12:55AM

The Democrat dictatorship rolls on, smashing the economy [that's us, by the way], and our freedoms. The scumbag media are pulling out all the stops to protect these pigs from public criticism so that their legislation can get rammed through with little or no opposition. So who is more dangerous to us now? Osama? Or Obama?

Alikazam| 4.1.09 @ 2:24PM

I can't understand why the most blatantly unconstitutional laws - like the last stimulus bill are not being challenged in court!!! Where are Republic constitutional lawyers? Activists? Isn't it time to use all the tools we have to at least slow this down? Does anyone know about any kind of activity like this (besides the Obama birth certificate cases)

Alikazam| 4.1.09 @ 2:25PM

sorry, I meant Republican...

Woodchopper| 4.1.09 @ 7:55PM

George Washington: First president of the United States
George W. Bush: Last president of the United States
B. H. Obama: First dictator of the Union of Socialist States