Cheney supports public lands, Second Amendment

WORLAND — Ensuring multiple uses of public lands has been a focus for U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, in her first term serving as Wyoming’s lone representative in the House.

She has introduced some legislation focusing on ensuring some recreational activities, which have been called into question by Teton County Commissioners.

During her interview with the Northern Wyoming Daily News Friday, Cheney said, “First of all I’ve heard from county commissioners around the state, some that are involved in the public lands initiative, some that aren’t, asking for resolution.

She said there are wilderness study areas from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. “A lot of these wilderness study areas, all of the BLM area, were reviewed back in 1991 and recommendations were made about whether they should be released or should become wilderness. Twenty-seven years in my view is far too long to have those lands in limbo.”

In addition to the wilderness study areas, she said federal government agencies have also added land with wilderness characteristics.

“You’ve got hundreds of thousands of acres of land that basically have been put off limits, totally outside any legal process, it’s been done just by fiat from federal agencies in Washington and that’s wrong,” Cheney said.

As part of a way to deal with the wilderness study areas, Wyoming created the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative. Under the WPLI, all 23 counties have been invited to participate in the initiative, and each Board of County Commissioners decided if their county will join the effort. Each county will create a County Advisory Team, made up of members from agriculture, conservation, energy, recreation districts and county commissioners to review and designate the lands in their area.

Once committee recommendations have been formalized and approved by the county commission, the final recommendations of the WPLI will be sent to a federal delegation for introduction in the U.S. House and Senate.

Cheney said, “What I’m interested in doing is working very closely with the county commissioners. It’s going to take congressional action to resolve the status of our wilderness study areas. There are some counties, Sweetwater and Lincoln, who have said ‘why do we have to wait for the public lands initiative process to be completed when we are not even part of the process?’ So what I would like to be able to do is introduce legislation that’s very specific, very much targets counties and specific wilderness study areas where the commissioners want action. I’m not going to take steps that the county commissioners haven’t asked me to do. I’m going to be guided by what they’ve asked.”

She added, “The public lands initiative is a good process. I don’t think it’s yielding results in every county. I think there are some people who are participating in that process now who just want to delay and I think we shouldn’t let that happen.”

Regarding Teton County, she said the bill she introduced impacted Forest Service wilderness study areas.

“That bill focuses on that there is clarity about congressional intent with respect to recreation [including heli-skiing], particularly in some of those wilderness study areas. I received over a thousand letters from constituents, a number of them in Teton County, and some in Lincoln County, who recreate in those areas and want to make sure that those uses are not excluded and shut off. That bill is moving on a different path than the larger wilderness study area bill, but I’m hopeful to be able to move on a larger bill.

She says Montana Congressional delegates are also introducing legislation to deal specifically with their wilderness study areas.

“So there’s sort of a momentum there that it would be useful for us to take advantage of,” Cheney added.

SECOND AMENDMENT

When asked about the #EnoughisEnough movement to end school violence, Cheney said, “I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. And I don’t believe that gun control is the answer. I think there are a lot of people out there now, it’s really sad to see them exploit what’s happened in Florida, for example, to try and get their agenda accomplished.

“I think we have an obligation to make sure our kids are safe when they go to school. I feel that way as a mom, first and foremost. You want to know when you send your kids to school in the morning that they are going to be safe.”

She added, “I support efforts that individual counties around the state are taking. It’s not a federal issue really to make these determinations whether they have security professionals in the schools who are armed.

“I think it’s really important frankly, for anybody who might be considering doing harm to our kids, they ought to know that if they go into our schools they’re putting their own life at risk. I think individual counties have to decide how to best handle that situation.

“I think people need to understand we’re going to protect our kids and the solution, absolutely is not to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens”

FIRST TERM

Cheney also took some time to discuss how her first term has been going.

“First of all it’s a huge honor to be in this position and to have the confidence of the people of Wyoming and to be representing the people of Wyoming. I never forget that.”

She added, “I think it has been very helpful to have come into office when President [Donald] Trump came into office because there’s been the ability, because of the executive branch wanting to get done a lot of the same things we need to get done for Wyoming, we have been able to move on a lot of issues and get things done.”

PROGRESS

Cheney, who is in the second year of her first two-year term and will be seeking re-election, said she feels that the House of Representatives has made a lot of progress including passing legislation to repeal Dodd-Frank [Act, financial reform], really to help our community banks; working with the Senate to get some of the same language passed; working on the Farm Bill and making sure protections for the sugar industry are in place.

“We’ve got to make sure we keep the majority in the fall. Folks in Wyoming know how important that is. We always have good turnout here,” She said, but added she is encouraging people across the country to realize how important the mid-term elections will be. “It will be devastating if we don’t manage to hold our majorities.”

But it’s not all been progress as Cheney said there certainly have been frustrations.

“We haven’t gotten as much done as I would have liked. For example we did get health care reform through the House but we haven’t been able to get it through the Senate. We’ve done a lot in protecting life, bills we passed through House unable to get through Senate. It shows we’ve got to get some more Republicans elected in the Senate and we’ve got to be in a better position to get our agenda through. It goes back to how important these mid-term elections are going to be.

“I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do and look forward to being able to run for re-election and continuing to work for the people of Wyoming.”

In closing, Cheney did comment that her favorite newspaper name has always been The Worland Grit, “best newspaper name ever.”