Washington – Disagreement over how to best bar future development in Rocky Mountain National Park triggered a nasty spat Thursday between Colorado’s two U.S. senators.
Junior Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. accused senior Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., of breaking an agreement to work together to give much of the park wilderness status.
“I feel violated,” Salazar told reporters after he hand-delivered a letter of complaint to Allard’s office.
It marked the first public disagreement between the two since Salazar’s 2004 election.
Allard, along with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, introduced a bill Thursday to designate most of the park as wilderness, with roads and buildings banned forever.
Salazar had introduced a bill in July 2005 offering the park wilderness designation. Rep. Mark Udall has offered similar bills in the House every year since 1999.
Salazar said Allard, by introducing a new bill instead of working with him to amend Salazar’s existing measure, had hurt efforts to pass legislation this year giving the park wilderness status.
The fight ballooned beyond the park issue with Salazar saying in his letter that on many of Allard’s bills that Salazar co-sponsored, “I have done the work on these bills and let you take credit for them in part out of deference to you as Colorado’s senior senator.”
Allard said Salazar’s criticisms were untrue, and that he was taking action he felt was needed to get the park wilderness designation.
Allard also said of Salazar that “there isn’t a piece of (co-sponsored) legislation where it’s been his work entirely.”
There has been talk for many years of officially designating most of Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness. That status would not apply to existing park roads or visitor centers.
One woman who backs wilderness designation said she feared the new bill “really derails the chance to get anything done this year.” Once a conflicting bill is introduced, it usually stops the first one from proceeding, said Amy Roberts, government affairs director for the Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Association.
In the House, Democrat Udall questioned why Musgrave would introduce legislation that Udall said duplicated a bill he’d introduced.
Her bill, he said, “seems to be more about taking credit for the legislation rather than protecting the park. … A cynic might think that this timing is aimed at helping Mrs. Musgrave in her re-election campaign.”
Musgrave Chief of Staff Guy Short said the timing had nothing to do with the election. He said that she and Allard wanted to move forward, and that Salazar and Udall waited more than a year after Salazar introduced his bill to start negotiating with Republican lawmakers.
Allard and Musgrave in July resisted the park’s wilderness designation in a newspaper opinion piece, but said that they looked forward to working on a bipartisan bill that addressed their concerns such as economic impact.
Allard Chief of Staff Sean Conway said while some wilderness backers supported the Salazar-Udall bill, other groups had concerns, which Allard and Musgrave addressed in their bill.
