Rep. Blumenauer Urges House to Pass Oregon Wilderness Measures This Week

Press Release

Rep. Blumenauer Urges House to Pass Oregon Wilderness Measures This Week

Omnibus legislation will include new long-awaited wilderness on Mt. Hood

Today, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) led Oregon's Democratic House Reps. in urging colleagues to support S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act. The House is scheduled to vote this week on this bill which contains numerous public lands provisions for Oregon, including the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act that has been awaiting Congressional action for several years. U.S. House Reps. Peter De Fazio, Kurt Schrader, and David Wu joined Blumenauer in sending the attached letter to members of the House today.

"For the past six years members of Oregon's congressional delegation, hundreds of constituents, numerous organizations and agencies, local governments and Tribal leaders have worked tirelessly to pass these wilderness provisions through the Senate," said Rep. Blumenauer. "That's why I am pleased to be joined by my Oregon democratic colleagues in urging members of the House to pass this bill to President Obama without delay. Oregonians should not have to wait for 20 more years to see our state's natural beauty protected and preserved for generations to come."
In 2003, Blumenauer convened the first of a series of annual Mt. Hood Summits. In 2006, he partnered with the Oregon House delegation members to pass the Mt. Hood Stewardship Legacy Act, which was the first new Oregon wilderness expansion to pass either chamber of Congress in 20 years.
The Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act protects almost 127,000 acres around Mount Hood with wilderness protection and adds almost 80 miles on nine free-flowing stretches of rivers to the National Wild and Scenic River System.

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