WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, Tuesday called on the federal government to compile an inventory of the millions of acres of land it owns and its use.
Cannon said the federal government owns close to one-third of all the land in the United States -- more than 670 million acres -- but does not have a clear idea of what its holdings are or what they are used for.
Writing in the Washington Times, Cannon cited two U.S. government studies dramatizing the scope of the problem: One identified more than 5.1 million federally-owned acres as being "vacant;" a second found hundreds of thousands of real property assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars that are no longer needed.
The surplus acreage cause states to experience economic strain, Cannon said, because the lands do not generate tax revenues. The federal payments intended as compensation for the lost revenues fall "far short of the costs those lands impose on local governments," he said.
Cannon, the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, said 12 western states lose billions in yearly potential revenue, an economic burden he called "unbearable."
