Capital Watch
Bush pursues new rules for cattle grazing

	Gale Norton
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The new rules would give the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) two years, instead of one, to make grazing decisions needed to maintain healthy ranges, according to agency documents obtained yesterday by The Associated Press.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton plans to announce the proposal today to a convention of livestock owners in Albuquerque, N.M. She describes the proposal as an attempt to improve grazing management and help continue public-lands ranching in the rural West.

But the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said that it expects the proposal to mark a return to practices that have allowed decades of overgrazing and other unsustainable grazing practices.

The rules also would require more studies and monitoring any time the BLM evaluates whether health standards for rangeland are being met and reward livestock owners by letting them split ownership with the BLM for improvements such as fences, wells and pipelines.

The proposal is to be published in the Federal Register on Monday, and the BLM also plans to release a draft study of the proposal's environmental impact this month. The public is being given at least 60 days to comment.

Bush signs bill to increase identity-theft protection

President Bush yesterday signed into law a bill giving consumers additional protection against identity theft and renewing federal credit-reporting laws.

The measure, a pet project of Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., allows consumers to obtain one free credit report a year. Consumers until now have had to pay for credit reports, except for certain circumstances, such as being rejected for credit.

The law also makes permanent a ban on states' passing tougher laws than federal law on gathering consumer-credit information. Banking, insurance and retail companies, such as Citigroup, Target and Allstate, pushed for the extension, saying it was necessary to maintain the ease and availability of credit for U.S. consumers and boost the economy.

Consumer groups opposed the federal pre-emption of state laws, saying that states can protect consumers better than the federal government.

Watchdogs file IRS complaint against DeLay over charity

Two watchdog groups yesterday filed a complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, asking that the Internal Revenue Service deny a tax exemption to a DeLay-backed charity that will throw parties and offer a luxury suite for major donors to watch President Bush's acceptance speech at the 2004 Republican Convention.

"Celebrations for Children" will raise money for abused and neglected children by using the events at the New York convention in August as a drawing card, paying for them with donations.

Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center allege that "the DeLay scheme" violates IRS law. DeLay's group has tax-exempt status and therefore should operate exclusively for charitable purposes, they contend.

DeLay's office says the fund raising is for a worthy charitable cause and that the efforts of DeLay and his wife have been a "long-standing endeavor to build a permanent safe home" for foster children.

Also ...

The National Research Council yesterday endorsed making potassium iodide pills — which can protect the thyroid gland of people exposed to radiation — available to people who live near nuclear power plants. ... The Federal Election Commission yesterday abolished a rule that required presidential and congressional campaigns to pay companies and unions on the spot for use of their planes, instead giving them one week.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company