Government and Real Estate

Some very interesting facts from Senator Tom Coburn:

Though federal agencies are not required to report total land holdings, it is estimated that the federal government now owns at least 654 million acres of land. This is the equivalent of nearly 30 percent of all land in the United States, and 1 of out every 2 acres in the West.

Federal land holdings have grown by 90 million acres since 1997.

In many states, the federal government owns the majority of land. For instance, taxpayers own over 80 percent of the land in Nevada, 57 percent in Utah, and 53 percent of Oregon. This means that a federal land bureaucrat has say over more land in these sovereign states than their Governor or state legislature.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently estimated the maintenance backlog for these lands stands as high as $19 billion, up 60 percent in just five years. As Congress buys more land (largely through special earmarks), national landmarks like the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, the National Mall, and Yosemite are increasingly threatened because resources are siphoned away.

The federal government manages a 700 million acre subsurface mineral estate, and using the most conservative estimates, federal on-shore lands contain at least 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Oil shale on federal lands are estimated to contain an additional 1.23 trillion barrels of oil, almost five times the proven reserves of oil giant Saudi Arabia. Yet, according to a recent analysis by the Bureau of Land Management, only 8 percent of federal lands with oil and gas reserves are open for standard leasing, with 60 percent of oil and gas on federal lands completely closed.

American citizens are losing access to their public lands. Over the past forty years, over 100 million federal acres have fallen under the most severe public access restrictions, with more than 2 million acres added in the past year alone.

The federal government owns millions of acres along and near the borders. Federal land management agencies are increasingly asserting jurisdiction to stop critical US Border Patrol activities creating safe havens for violent drug and human traffickers.

President Obama is proposing to spend an additional $620 million in the next fiscal year for federal agencies to buy more land. This is on top of the $260 million allocated for land purchases this year.