S156OCT21

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending July 29, 2005

S.156 A bill to designate the Ojito Wilderness Study Area as wilderness, to take certain land into trust for the Pueblo of Zia, and for other purposes.

BRIEF

The accompanying report concluded “Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan, Jr., recommended the designation of the Ojito Wilderness in 1991. Secretary Lujan found the Ojito to have `high quality wilderness values' with `outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive and unconfined recreation,' President George H.W. Bush concurred in the recommendation and forwarded it to Congress for consideration. Since then, the Bureau of Land Management has managed the Ojito Wilderness Study Area in a manner so as not to impair its suitability for preservation as wilderness. S. 156 designates the approximately 11,000 acre area as wilderness.

“S. 156 also authorizes the Pueblo of Zia to acquire approximately 11,514 acres of public land adjacent to the Pueblo's current reservation. The Pueblo of Zia's reservation comprises two non-contiguous tracts of land that largely surround the Wilderness Study Area. The Pueblo has long desired to acquire some adjacent aboriginal lands that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management in order to unite the two parts of its reservation These lands also are valued by the public for recreation and other purposes. The bill allows for the Pueblo to acquire those lands, while at the same time guaranteeing public access.”

Public access and existing right of ways would be maintained.

Sponsor: Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

Vote: Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent (July 27, 2005) Passed House by voice vote October 18, 2005. Signed into law as PL 109-94 October 26, 2005.

Cost to the taxpayers: The CBO reported, “The bill would increase both offsetting receipts and direct spending, but we estimate that the net change in direct spending would be negligible. Enacting S. 156 would not affect revenues.”