U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Barbara Boxer are moving forward with their plan to pass a massive land, wildlife and water omnibus package in the final days of the lame-duck Congress. This colossal bill will cost billions of dollars and include over a hundred measures that will create new spending programs, cost jobs, harm our economy, expand the power of the EPA, lock-up more public land, block U.S. energy production and complicate Border Patrol's ability to secure our border.

“Harry Reid abandoned one giant omnibus package this week, but still remains defiant on creating a new bloated bill against the wishes of the American people,” said Doc Hastings, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman-elect. “This latest omnibus package is also stuffed full of costly programs and wasteful spending – the scope of which will impact people and jobs across the entire county. We have a debt that is costing jobs and putting future generations at risk. Instead of haphazardly approving billions in new spending, we have an obligation to ask if spending money on these programs is so critical that we should further indebt ourselves to foreign countries and put our economic security at risk. This monster bill must be defeated.”

What’s Included in the Reid-Boxer Omnibus:

• Over a thousand pages.

• 110 bills, many of which have never been voted on by the full House or Senate before.

• More than $18 billion in new spending over 10 years.

• Funding increases for existing programs, including:
  • $9 billion in permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) over 10 years, which is primarily used to purchase more federal land.
  • $136 million for the Public Lands Service Corps over five years – double the current funding level.
  • $65 million to kill non-native rats, (nutria) on public and private lands in Maryland, Louisiana and other eligible coastal states.
  • $40 million for conservation of neotropical migratory birds, even though the majority are not threatened or endangered.

• Creation of new federal programs, including:
  • Over $500 million for National Fish Habit Conservation spending programs and offices.
  • More than $200 million over five years to create a new national harmful algal bloom (HAB) and hypoxia programs.
  • $208 million over six years for a Coral Reef Conservation Program, including $40 million for a new international program.
  • $15 million to assist great cats and rare canids – one of which is only found in Spain and Portugal.
  • $15 million to assist 15 species of cranes living in both North America and Asia.

• Multiple bills that expand EPA’s power to control the economy and kill jobs, and will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Designation of over 272,673 acres of new Wilderness in three states – placing land off limits to energy production, public recreation and threatening U.S. Border Patrol’s ability to secure the border.

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