{"id":1316234,"date":"2019-10-29T17:46:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T23:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990274"},"modified":"2019-10-29T17:46:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T23:46:16","slug":"house-takes-up-core-act-despite-tiptons-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/house-takes-up-core-act-despite-tiptons-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"House takes up CORE Act despite Tipton\u2019s opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Thompson Divide area west of Carbondale in winter, as seen from an EcoFlight flyover.<\/strong>
EcoFlight photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

As a bill that could provide protections for the Thompson Divide nears a vote in Congress, Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colorado, said he can\u2019t support it in its current form.<\/p>\n

The CORE Act cleared a procedural hurdle<\/a> Tuesday when the House of Representatives voted to consider a package of lands bills later this week.<\/p>\n

Tipton, who represents Colorado\u2019s 3rd District, voted against bringing the CORE Act to the floor. He said in a statement that the bill \u201cdoes not adequately incorporate reasonable changes or input from around the 3rd district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany impacted communities and stakeholders in the 3rd<\/sup> District have not been included in the creation of the CORE Act, and the result is an unbalanced effort. I believe we would be in a much different place on the CORE Act if enough outreach had occurred, and if the process had been more inclusive and incorporated ideas important to many communities in the 3rd<\/sup> District,\u201d Tipton said in the statement.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Thompson Divide language, the CORE Act also protects 61,000 acres in the San Juan Mountains, preserves 100,000 acres of wilderness, recreation, and conservation areas along the Continental Divide in the White River National Forest, and formally establishes the boundary for the Curecanti National Recreation Area near Gunnison.<\/p>\n

Tipton voted against bringing the CORE Act to the floor because of ongoing concerns about the process, according to spokesman Matthew Atwood. The House Rules Committee put a deadline for submitting amendments to the CORE Act, and would not open the bill to amendments when it reached the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have preferred an open rule bill which would have
\nallowed for him to reintroduce his amendments on the House floor and perhaps
\nget the concerns he\u2019s received from across the district addressed before the
\nvote took place,\u201d a spokesman for Tipton\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Tipton submitted 11 amendments before the deadline but only three were taken up.<\/p>\n

One of Tipton\u2019s amendments that will be considered by the
\nHouse would ensure
\ngrazing permitted at the time of enactment may continue in Thompson Divide.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the Thompson Divide language say that the bill\u2019s text already preserves grazing rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of Tipton\u2019s amendments that were not taken up to be
\nconsidered by the House related to the Thompson Divide language.<\/p>\n

Tipton submitted an amendment that Thompson Divide
\nprotections would not take effect \u201cuntil the Department of Interior has
\ncertified to Congress that all leaseholders in the area have been adequately
\ncompensated for any relinquished leases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, submitted an amendment that would have made Thompson Divide protections conditional to Garfield County commissioners\u2019 formal approval, but that amendment was not taken up to be considered.<\/p>\n

Tipton wants a bill that \u201cbetter reflects the interests\u201d of his district, Atwood said.<\/p>\n

Despite the opposition to the current version of the CORE Act, Atwood said Tipton was confident that if it passes the House, the Senate could amend the bill.<\/p>\n

Tipton also has his own lands bill, the Colorado REC Act, though an initial discussion draft<\/a> of that bill did not include Thompson Divide protections.<\/p>\n

The CORE Act is scheduled for a floor vote Thursday.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thompson Divide area west of Carbondale in winter, as seen from an EcoFlight flyover.EcoFlight photo As a bill that could provide protections for the Thompson Divide nears a vote in Congress, Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colorado, said he can\u2019t support it in its current form. The CORE Act cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 15:33:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}