MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Congress will be taking another opportunity early next week to decide whether wilderness areas in national forests in New England should be expanded.
The issue, affecting Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest and New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, got tied up in political bickering between Vermont’s congressional delegation and Gov. Jim Douglas.
The House now has put the bill on its calendar for action on Monday, said Erin Campbell, press secretary to Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“We are extremely pleased that we were able to work in a bipartisan manner to get the New England wilderness bill on the schedule for Monday,” Campbell said.
A bill that cleared the U.S. Senate in the closing weeks of Congress’ regular session called for expanding wilderness areas – which are closed to all vehicular traffic – in Vermont by 49,000 acres. Wilderness in the White Mountain National Forest would have expanded by 34,500 acres.
That prompted Douglas to write to Republican leaders in the House to complain, derailing the bill. In the final week of the session, New Hampshire lawmakers tried to push through a bill that would have added only to the White Mountain National Forest, but Sanders defeated that in a procedural maneuver.
A compromise bill was worked out designating 6,000 fewer acres in Vermont, although it did not make it to the House floor in time. The Senate did pass it. It’s that bill that the House is scheduled to vote on Monday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said it was a sign that issues will move in Washington in advance of Democrats’ takeover of the House and Senate.
“This is a week that has begun to melt some of the glacial pace that has prevented Congress from acting on many issues that are important to Vermonters and the nation, and final passage of this bill may offer some of the first proof of that change,” he said.
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