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Show U.S. Comptroller General Says No To Babbitt: He Can't Void RS2477 Roads WASHINGTON, D.C. In response to inquiries from Congressman Con-gressman Chris Cannon (R-UT3) and 29 of his Congressional colleagues, col-leagues, the Acting Comptroller General of the United States has ruled that Secretary Bruce Babbitt cannot administratively regulate or invalidate existing rights-of-way under Revised Statute (RS)2477, without prior Congressional approval. "For decades the access rights guaranteed under RS2477 have been relied upon in property selection, purchase and development," develop-ment," said Congressman Cannon. Can-non. "Secretary Babbitt has repeatedly re-peatedly tried to bureaucratically undermine these rights when access roads cross federal land, attempting to lock up parcels of both public and private land by denying people access." The Congressional request resulted from Secretary Babbitt's propensity to arbitrarily issue regulations which create disputes as to states' rights under RS2477. "We're extremely pleased with the Acting Comptroller General's decision," said Garfield i County Commission Chairman Louise Liston. "Without this decision, de-cision, not only Garfield County but counties in all the western states would have been seriously impacted on their RS2477 roads rights-of-way." Of particular concern to Congressman Cannon and Utah officials is the vast amount of school Trust Lands that would be landlocked without access roads over federal property. A portion of funding for Utah schools is derived from leasing these properties for farming, ranching, mining, and other resource development operations. "This ruling is a big win for Western land owners and land users especially for our school trust lands, the value of which is severely influenced by the availability of access to it," concluded Cannon. Liston, a former teacher, also serves on the board of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration and has lobbied often in Washington, D. C. in behalf of SITLA's responsibilities respon-sibilities to Utah's school children. |
