Wasatch Wilderness and Watershed Protection Act
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on public landsLand owned by the federal government, about a quarter of the country, managed by agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and Park Service.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) and Environmental regulationA binding rule written by a federal agency under authority Congress gave it. It has the force of law, but it is not a statute and can be changed without Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab).
Wasatch Wilderness and Watershed Protection Act - Designates specified federal lands in the vicinity of the Lone Peak Wilderness and the Mount Olympus Wilderness, and specified federal lands comprising the Wayne Owens Grandeur Peaks/Mount Aire Wilderness within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests in Salt Lake County, Utah, as wilderness and as either a new component or as an addition to an existing component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Establishes specified federal lands within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests as the Mt. Aire, Mt. Olympus, Twin Peaks, and Lone Peak Special Management Areas.
Requires the Special Management Areas to be managed to maintain their presently existing wilderness character and potential for inclusion in the System.
Allows the commercial helicopter-assisted skiing and snowboarding activities (known as heliskiing) that have been authorized on the federal lands included within the Special Management Areas to continue. Permits the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA), except as provided below, upon the expiration of such an authorization that was in effect for heliskiing, to reissue such authorizations in accordance with Forest Service procedures.
Requires the Secretary of Agriculture, within one year from the time in which all heliskiing activities within any special management area are no longer authorized or have otherwise been terminated, to publish a notice in the Federal Register to that effect. Designates the federal lands included within such an Area for which such a notice has been published as wilderness and adds them to the System as described in this Act.
Requires a land exchange involving certain federal and non-federal lands concerning the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on July 24, 2013. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on July 29, 2013: Referred to the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
JIM MATHESON (D-UT) introduced it on July 24, 2013. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on July 24, 2013, 4796 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4791 days ago, on July 29, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers