The House of Representatives rejected legislation today that would have created two million acres of Wilderness across the United States. Included in that two million acres was a proposed 37,000 acres of Wilderness in West Virginia and 40,000 acres in Virginia. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 would have been the largest expansion of Wilderness in more than 15 years. The bill would have also expanded protections of our national parks and a number of rivers. However, the package fell two votes short of the requisite two-thirds threshold, so although a majority of members of Congress do support this important piece of legislation, it appears as though it will need to move through Congress under a different process.
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