2004 Congressional Public Lands Agenda Shaped at Fundraiser

PHOENIX, Arizona, January 7, 2004 (ENS) - Wining, dining, golf and political strategizing with House Republicans is on the agenda as 100 business leaders, state and federal elected officials, Bush administration officials meet this week in Phoenix to build a "Top Ten To-Do List" for the U.S. Congress in 2004. They are gathering as part of the Roundtable Summit of the West conference, co-hosted by the Western Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

"The Top Ten List might not make it on Letterman, but it ought to get a good deal of attention where it counts: in the halls of the U.S. Congress," said Jim Sims, executive director of the Western Business Roundtable, which is organizing the region-wide effort.

Sims served in the White House in 2001 as President George W. Bush's director of communications for the National Energy Policy Development Group, which helped to craft the recommendations behind the President's National Energy Policy.

The main topics of negotiation will be timber, oil, mining, development, livestock and off-road activities, but conservationists say the disposition of public lands should be conducted in a public forum, not on an golf junket and political fundraising event for House Republicans.

“This golf, give and grab event is set up for industry to have its way with Congress and to exclude the public from having a say in whether America’s natural treasures are protected or destroyed,” said Peter Altman, director for the Campaign to Protect America’s Lands. “It is an alarming warning sign of how bad things have gotten that the timber, oil and mining industries would be this brazen about buying their way onto the Capitol Hill agenda.”

Jim Sims is executive director of the Western Business Roundtable. (Photo courtesy Western Business Roundtable)

The committee is covering hotel and food expenses for members of Congress. Conference participants are handling their own airfare, Sims said. He expects today's event to raise less than $100,000.

From Sims' point of view the event offers an opportunity to "Share ideas and recommendations with national policy leaders. Learn from Washington insiders about new threats and opportunities facing business in the West, and help shape multi-industry lobbying strategies on key business issues."

In addition to those Republican supporters meeting in Phoenix, Sims expects several thousand people from across the West to participate in the exercise via an online survey.

On Thursday, 15 members of Congress will gather with business leaders to release their "Top Ten To-Do List" to the public.

Local and regional public interest organizations will counter with their own “Top Ten Resolutions for President Bush and Congress,” also on Thursday.

The Southwest Environmental Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens Coal Council, Arizona Wilderness Coalition, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Campaign to Protect America’s Lands say they are the ones who give the public interest top priority on public lands.

“The Bush administration and industry lap-dog politicians are selling special access to corporate polluters,” said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Tucson based Center for Biological Diversity, who formerly worked within the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. “Industry fat cats will line up at the feeding trough as the Bush administration and GOP politicians shovel promises of environmental and public interest law rollbacks to them. This is big money special interest politics at its worst.”

J. Steven Griles was confirmed as Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Interior in July 2001. He served as assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary of the interior for lands and minerals management under President Ronald Reagen from 1983 to 1989. (Photo courtesy Interior Department)

The conservationists expressed concern that Griles, who is under federal investigation for continuing to meet with his former clients despite several recusal agreements, would participate in such a fundraising event.

"The prominence of Deputy Secretary Griles in this blatant ‘cash-and-carry’ political setting shows that both he and the Bush Administration are not serious about addressing his grave ethical lapses when it comes to inappropriate dealings with industry,” said Kristen Sykes, Interior Department watchdog for Friends of the Earth.

“It is one thing to be perched in the lap of industry and it is another thing to be this blatant about advertising that fact. And that concern does not extend only to Griles, but to every member of Congress who would allow themselves to be wined, dined and financed in this fashion,” Sykes said.

Much of the Republican Congressional strength lies in the West, and many of these elected representatives are here in Phoenix.

From Arizona, House Financial Services Committee Member Rick Renzi, House Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chair Jim Kolbe, House Energy and Commerce Committee Member John Shadegg, and House Ways and Means Committee Member J.D. Hayworth are in attendance.

From California, House Resources Committee Chair Richard Pombo is here as is House Energy and Commerce Committee Member Darrell Issa, who financed the California gubernatorial recall election.

Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is here along with House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Vice Chair Steve Pearce, from the same state.

Montana Governor Judy Martz (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

From Texas, House Government Reform Committee member John Carter and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member Michael Burgess are attending.

Utah is represented by House Western Caucus Chair Chris Cannon and House Resources Committee member Rob Bishop.

House Resources Committee Vice Chair Jim Gibbons of Nevada joins the party along with House Budget Committee member Tom Tancredo of Colorado.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is here in the form of Congressmen Butch Otter of Idaho and Lee Terry of Nebraska.

And from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Jeffrey Holmstead is in attendance.

The Western Business Roundtable is nonpartisan, Sims said, and has held similar conferences in the past with officials from the Democratic administration of former President Bill Clinton.