Senate Receives Letter from 48 Livestock and Natural Resource Groups Opposing the Great American Outdoors Act

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) and the Public Lands Council (PLC) and many other affiliate organizations today wrote Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Energy and Natural Resources Chair Lisa Murkowski, and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Joe Manchin urging Congress to retain its role in safeguarding public lands by opposing the Great American Outdoors (GAO) Act (S.3422).

The GAO Act as written creates more than $14 billion in new, mandatory spending and gives federal agencies free rein to spend $360 million per year solely to acquire new private land without any oversight from Congress. This raises concern among the 48 livestock and natural resource groups who signed the joint letter, as the groups point out the blatant conflict by pairing the mounting disrepair of current land under federal control and allowing rampant acquisition without accounting for management of future land acquisitions.