The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act and the Colorado Wilderness Act on Friday as part of the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act.
After passing in the House on a bipartisan basis, the public lands acts move to the Senate. If passed in the Senate, the legislation would designate and protect hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Colorado.
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette, introduced the CORE Act in the House while U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet introduced it in the Senate as an attempt to give it a better chance at passing into law. The CORE Act encompasses four previously introduced bills, and it would designate, protect and preserve more than 400,000 acres of land in Colorado.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, introduced the Colorado Wilderness Act in the House.
If passed, the act would designate more than 600,000 acres of lands in Colorado as federally protected wilderness.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., is on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over the bill. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Rifle, is on the House Committee on Natural Resources, which will also review and consider the bill. She previously called the CORE Act a “land grab by Denver’s liberals.”
In 2019, the CORE Act passed in the House twice, but it failed to make it to the Senate floor either time.
On Feb. 2, Hickenlooper, Neguse and Bennet held a virtual conference to announce the reintroduction of the CORE Act this congressional term.
“I feel very confident that we can get it done this year,” Bennet said at the virtual conference.
Bennet said the biggest obstacle to passing the CORE Act into law will most likely be “dysfunction in the Senate,” rather than opposition to the legislation.
Hickenlooper and Neguse also expressed optimism for the passage of the CORE Act this year at the virtual conference. They said a pro-conservation president and a pro-conservation majority in the House and Senate is an indication that the bill will do well.
During a confirmation hearing Thursday, Rep. Deb Haaland, nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, indicated that she and President Joe Biden are supportive of the CORE Act.
“They say third time’s the charm. The House’s passage of the CORE Act today – for the third time – means we’re poised to prove that expression true,” Hickenlooper said in a statement after the bill passed. “We’re eager to finish the job in the Senate.”
Grace George is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.