Thread: Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy prepares for legislative showdown

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy prepares for legislative showdown

Rancher Cliven Bundy at a rally near his Nevada land last year. (David Becker / Getty Images)

By JOHN M. GLIONNA contact the reporter

'This isn't just a cowboy thing,' says Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy of his rally at the state Legislature
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and activists to take their anti-federal government message to Nevada Legislature


Recalcitrant Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is heading for what he hopes will be a good old-fashioned Western showdown over land rights.

But this time without guns.

The veteran cowboy, whose armed standoff last year with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights on federally-administered public lands almost led to violence, is taking a new tack in his battle for state sovereignty: lobbying the Nevada Legislature.

Backed by hundreds of supporters, Bundy plans to swarm a Tuesday legislative meeting to discuss a bill proposed to rein in Washington's far-reaching might in Nevada.

CAPTIONNevada ranch standoffDavid Becker / Getty Images
Cattleman Cliven Bundy leaves the lectern after a news conference near his ranch in Bunkerville, Nev. Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management have been locked in a dispute for years over grazing rights on public lands.


He spent Monday on a bus loaded with mostly blue-collar men who share his philosophy that the federal government should release its stronghold on nearly 90% of the land in this arid Western state, allowing for increased rights by local residents to fish, hike and hunt there.

And in Bundy's case, run his cattle free of charge there.
The group has prepared to stage a rally outside the Legislature before trooping inside to air their opinions as lawmakers discuss yet another possible law to suggest that Western states be granted more say in how the lands in their domains are managed.

That's going to amount to an awful lot of cowboy hats at the afternoon meeting.

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"This is not only a cowboy thing; it's a 'We, the people' thing. It's a freedom and liberty thing," Bundy told the Los Angeles Times.

"We want access to our public lands. We want to claim our land, even though we don't need to claim it because it's already ours. But the federal government doesn't seem to get that."

At issue will be Nevada's AB 408, which aims to diminish the role of pesky federal officials on public lands like a cow swatting a fly with its tail - just the latest of anti-Uncle Sam bills put forth across the West that have caught the attention of land and water advocacy groups.


Cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's sons seek local investigation of feds

"Bill 408 goes farther than even the most extreme bill we’ve seen so far - and we're tracking 37 like bills in 11 Western states,” Jessica Goad, a spokeswoman for the group Center for Western Priorities, told The Times.

She said similar legislation in states like Utah and Arizona have ranged from a call to study state control of lands to a demand for Washington to turn all management over to state legislatures.

"This one in Nevada doesn't even just demand that Congress do something. It says that the federal government has no say in any land and water rights discussion," Goad said.

Already, the state's oversight Legislative Counsel Bureau has called the bill "unconstitutional."

The bureau underscored that the power of Congress to "prescribe rules and regulations concerning public lands entrusted to Congress is firmly entrenched, and ample authority exists upon which to invalidate state laws which conflict with federal laws concerning the management and control of federal public lands."

Goad said Bundy and his supporters represented "an extremist take on the rights of the federal government in America right now."

Their "sovereign citizen" movement insists "the law doesn't apply to them," she said.

Most state legislators have carefully couched language in similar bills to say they don't want to get rid of public lands, just give the states more say in their management, Goad said.
But not in Nevada.


Cliven Bundy standoff: Locals want armed militia out, lawmaker says

Activists worry that, if successful, the Silver State could embolden other legislatures in the West.

The brouhaha in rural Nevada kicked off last spring when the federal government sent armed agents to seize cattle they said Bundy was running in the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area, the habitat of the federally-protected desert tortoise.

After years of court battles in which a defiant Bundy argued that he did not recognize the rule of the federal government in the matter, and stopped paying allotted grazing fees in 1993, a federal judge ordered seizure of the animals, saying the rancher now owed $1 million in back fees.

But when agents moved in, Bundy was backed by an angry citizen militia, many of them armed with semiautomatic weapons. The federal government backed off, promising to pursue Bundy through the U.S. courts.

A small cadre of militia members still camp near Bundy's spread, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, just to be sure.

Bundy said Monday that along with a chartered bus of activists, he expected carloads of supporters to arrive from Arizona, Utah, California and Nevada.

"We're going to give them a piece of our mind," he said.
Carol Bundy, the rancher's wife, said Monday she too wanted to be part of the effort to "swarm" the Legislature.

She told The Times: "Somebody has to stay at home and manage the chores, feed the cows, and I guess that's me."

Twitter: @jglionna

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...330-story.html

http://www.alipac.us/f9/bundy-i-migh...en-but-301670/

Cliven Bundy, supporters rally before Nevada lawmakers

By MICHELLE RINDELS and RILEY SNYDER 46 minutes ago

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who garnered national attention a year ago when he and armed supporters engaged in a showdown with federal authorities, came to Carson City Tuesday with scores of allies to rally behind a bill seeking to reclaim land from the federal government.

A bus from Phoenix and another from Las Vegas brought more than 100 people, according to Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, and others came on their own to fill several legislative hearing rooms. Many wore shirts and carried signs that read "the land belongs to the people."

The proposal, Assembly Bill 408, is sponsored by Republican Assemblywoman Michele Fiore and would require the federal government to obtain permission to use land within the state's borders. The proposal also strips the federal government of state water rights and would allow county commissions to parcel out state land for commercial use.

"We're here to take our state back and act like we're sovereign citizens," Bundy said at a rally outside the Capitol before the hearing. "We're going to have agency. We're going to own our rights here on this land."

The bill is part of a larger movement challenging federal government property rights, especially in Western states such as Nevada, where federal and military agencies control about 85 percent of the land.

The Bureau of Land Management is charged with balancing environmental and recreational goals with economic development on the lands, which include national parks. The department's priorities in certain situations can anger residents.

Eleven Western states have introduced bills this year on the matter, and AB408 has the widest scope, according to Jessica Goad of the Denver-based conservation group Center for Western Priorities. The bill asserts the federal government has no right to the lands, while other bills merely call for a study on federal land ownership or demand the federal government turn over the lands.
View gallery

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, left, is confronted by activist Tork Rains while addressing a crowd at …

Such measures are routinely considered unconstitutional, even when they pass. But supporters see them as an important part of the fight to assert states' rights.

Cliven Bundy has said he doesn't recognize federal authority on the land near Bunkerville that his family settled and has used since the late 1870s.

BLM officials have accused him of failing to pay grazing fees for 20 years, racking up more than $1.1 million in fees and penalties, and failing to abide by court orders to remove his cattle from vast open range that is habitat for the endangered desert tortoise.

His standoff with the federal government and Bureau of Land Management last year attracted out-of-state militia members and was called off by federal agents on April 12, amid fears of a shootout, although BLM officials say they haven't given up on their case.

Bundy has been lauded by some as a hero in the fight against federal overreach.
View gallery

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, left, addresses the crowd after arriving at the Nevada State Legislatur …

But critics raise serious concerns about the bill. The state's legislative counsel bureau said the proposal was "manifestly hostile" to the federal government and would be struck down if challenged in court for attempting to put state law ahead of federal law.

Fiore, however, said she disagrees with that finding "100 percent."
Nevada's state conservation department estimated that transferring around 60 million acres of federally controlled land would cost the department around $95 million and that the parceling process for mining, logging and other industries could become "complicated and controversial."

"If we want to take control of all that," said Democratic Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, who opposes the plan, "I think we'll go broke as a state."

Crowd control measures were in place for the hearing. Capitol and local police made aware of the rally and other meetings were pushed back to accommodate a big hearing.

Opponents, including Battle Born Progress director Jocelyn Torres, say the measure would take land access out of the hands of everyday Nevadans.

"Federal lands belong to everyone, and they're limiting it to folks who can buy these lands and exploit them," she said. "If it's unconstitutional, it will get stopped at some point."

http://news.yahoo.com/cliven-bundy-s...193842478.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/mexican-ame...nevada-320474/