Legislative findings and declarations

The Legislature finds and declares that: 1. Policies and issues relating to public lands and state sovereignty as impaired by federal ownership of land are matters of continuing concern to this State. 2. This concern necessarily includes an awareness that all federal statutes, policies and regulations which affect the management of public lands are likely to have extensive effects within the State and must not be ignored or automatically dismissed as beyond the reach of the state’s policymakers. 3. Experience with federal regulations relating to public lands has demonstrated that the State of Nevada and its citizens are subjected to regulations which sometimes are unreasonable, arbitrary, beyond the intent of the Congress or the scope of the authority of the agency adopting them and that as a result these regulations should be subjected to legislative review and comment, and judicially tested where appropriate, to protect the rights and interests of the State and its citizens. 4. Other western states where public lands comprise a large proportion of the total area have shown an interest in matters relating to public lands and those states, along with Nevada, have been actively participating in cooperative efforts to acquire, evaluate and share information and promote greater understanding of the issues. Since Nevada can both contribute to and benefit from such interstate activities, it is appropriate that the Committee on Public Lands be assigned primary responsibility for participating in them.