Federal Lands

issues-federal-lands--libertarian-party-of-nevada

Libertarians believe Nevadans should control the land in Nevada.

Currently 87% of Nevada is controlled by the Federal Government. This land would be better used by just about anyone. The feds parcel out land usage rights to favored special interests at the expense of other industry.

(1) In 1979, with AB 4131, encoded today as NRS 321.596-321.599, Nevada lawmakers under then Governor Bob List, fired a salvo re-opening the long-running struggle by Western states to reclaim from federal authorities control of the land within state boundaries — the movement popularly known as the "Sagebrush Rebellion." That year, Nevada lawmakers asserted that federal ownership of 86 percent of the land within the state's borders comprised an unconstitutional burden that "works a severe, continuous and debilitating hardship upon the people of the State of Nevada."

This movement continues to gain strength. In 2011, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed HJR 39, a joint legislative resolution that garnered 56 cosponsors calling on Congress to relinquish control of "all right, title, and jurisdiction in those lands that were committed to the purposes of [that] state by terms of its enabling act compact."

The State Government needs to act to return these lands to the people of Nevada.

(1) Geoffrey Lawrence, "Solutions 2013," Nevada Policy Research Institute policy study, 2013