Labrador discusses public lands

Congressman said he will work with Trump if he is elected

COEUR d’ALENE — First District Congressman Raul Labrador made a sweep through Coeur d’Alene Thursday and stopped by The Press to discuss public lands and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Labrador is currently working to pass HR 2316, which would create a pilot project that gives states and counties more of a say in the management of no more than 2 percent of the national forests in the West.

“We are getting really good reception to the bill,” Labrador said.

Labrador said the idea for the bill came from meeting with county commissioners in Idaho, who are frustrated with having to go to the federal government year after year looking for Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, payments to replace the revenue they used to get from logging on federal forest lands.

“They are looking for ways to make money from the natural resources they have in their counties like they used to do,” he said. “Some of the richest counties in Idaho used to be these northern counties some of these smaller counties used to be richer than Ada County.”

Labrador said when he was first elected he sat down with a group of county commissioners, who presented the issue as a problem. He said he has introduced the Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act every year since he has been in office.

“It has already passed the House twice now,” Labrador said. “I think, with the right leadership, we can probably get it through the Senate.”

The only negative Labrador said he is getting is from the people who are misrepresenting what the bill does. He said there is a group of people saying the bill is designed to sell off the federal lands.

“There are two lies that they are telling people. A group of people are saying we want to sell off our federal lands and there is no truth to that at all,” he said. “And No. 2 they say that we are going to take away the treasures of Idaho.”

Labrador said the bill specifically exempts national monuments and parks.

“It’s sometimes funny when people say these things. Did they even read the bill?” Labrador said. “Read the legislation. It specifically excludes these national monuments.”

Labrador said the thrust of the bill is to create a pilot project where not more than four million acres of the 196 million acres of federal land can be managed by the states, with the exception of fire management.

The congressman said all of the data irrefutably shows Idaho’s forest lands are much healthier than the federal lands in Idaho.

Labrador said the local people managing the federal forests in Idaho are trying to do a good job, but their hands are tied with federal regulations and lawsuits.

Labrador’s bill would transfer the management of some federal lands into the state’s timber management practices, where some of the cumbersome federal regulations no longer apply.

“That’s the entire point of this bill,” Labrador said.

Labrador said he fully expects his opponents to challenge the ability of the federal government to transfer the land management to the states, but he thinks the law would survive that challenge.

“If we can take better care of that land why not let us do it, so the counties receive the benefits of the natural resources” he said. “We want to be able to show with this pilot project that we can take care of these lands and take care of them for the benefit of the people who live in these counties.”

Some Idaho counties are 80 percent federal land, and 64 percent of Idaho land is under federal control, Labrador said.

Labrador also had some thoughts on the presidential race, saying if Donald Trump wins the nomination he will work with him just like he would work with any other president or governor he has worked with.

“You know me, I am skeptical of all,” Labrador said. “And I will always be skeptical of anybody who wants too much power, and that is my problem with Trump. He seems to be the Obama of the Republican Party.”

He said Trump wants to bypass Congress, the legislative process and the Constitution.

“But I would work with him like I would work with any other executive,” Labrador said, adding he has worked with President Barack Obama on a couple of projects. “I have been to the White House probably more times than most members of Congress.”

He said he is diametrically opposed to most of the president’s initiatives, but they have found common ground on a couple of issues such as immigration reform.

As a firm supporter of Ted Cruz, Labrador said he hopes Trump is not elected president.

“And I think this is where we have to be really careful as Republicans,” Labrador said. “We created Donald Trump. The Republican Party continued to make promises to get elected and did something else after they got elected.

“And those of us who tried to keep our campaign promises after we were elected got attacked for trying to keep those promises,” he said. “First they attacked us for not knowing the process, and then they attacked us saying that we were not playing with the team then it got worse than that.”

Labrador said the establishment started running campaign ads against them for not voting with the party on certain issues.

“They are the ones who created Donald Trump,” he said, explaining how Trump is taking advantage of the 65 percent of Republicans who feel “betrayed” by the party.

“Think about that word. It’s not disappointed, it’s not mad, it’s not let down,” Labrador said. “It is betrayed. When somebody betrays you, how do you feel? That is a huge word — 65 percent of the Republican Party feel betrayed.”

Unfortunately, Labrador said, these Republicans are putting their faith in a candidate who doesn’t understand what it means to be a Republican.

“He has never been a Republican and has never stood for conservative principles,” Labrador said. “But he is speaking to that betrayal. He is speaking to those feelings that Americans feel, specifically how Republicans feel toward their party.”

Labrador said the party needs to internally fix that problem without any further betrayal.

He said some are talking about changing the rules at the convention to prevent Trump’s nomination, but Labrador doesn’t think that is going to work.

“That's not the way you do it because then they are going to feel an even bigger betrayal,” he explained. “The only way to do it is by beating him. That’s why I got full-on behind Ted Cruz.”

He said the Republican Party needs to play by the rules because if a few party leaders decide they are going to change the rules to get Congressman Paul Ryan nominated, it would mean the end of the Republican Party.

“That’s my opinion,” Labrador said. “And it’s because that betrayal would go from 65 percent to 95 percent and the intensity of the feeling is going to go from 70 to 100.

“It would be the worst thing the Republican Party could do.”