Proposed bill ties Social Security funding to public lands activity

Not everyone understands public lands policy, but eventually, everyone comes to understand Social Security.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is betting on that by sponsoring the Land And Social Security Optimization (LASSO) Act. The bill would require that 10% of revenue generated by the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service public lands would be directed to the Federal Old-Age & Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The trust fund pays Social Security benefits to retirees and their families and to survivors of deceased workers.

“This bill includes language that does not affect global or state revenues and maintains the predictability of these payments that are going to counties, that are going to local governments, tribal governments, without affecting PILT and Secure Rural Schools,” Macayle Fuchs, Gosar’s legislative director, told members of the Western Interstate Region (WIR) Feb. 22 during its meeting.

The PILT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) and Secure Rural Schools programs compensate counties for untaxable public land, including the lands specified in the bill. The Western Interstate Region represents counties in Western states that include significant portions of federally managed land.

“We’re facing an affordability crisis in the United States and in the West; we know how to manage our land. D.C. does not,” Fuchs said. “By tying the success of public lands to such a vulnerable asset as Social Security, the congressman (Gosar) hopes the LASSO Act will encourage expedited permitting, encourage NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) reform, or Endangered Species Act reform.” 

She said that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the activity on eligible public lands in 2023 would have generated at least $2 billion under the LASSO Act, which would have cut the Social Security shortfall by 3%. 

“It’s not the end-all, be-all solution to Social Security insolvency or the end-all, be-all solution for public land management,” she said. “Through this bill, the more money that’s generated off of public lands or from the multiple use of public lands, whether that’s recreation, energy development, grazing…the more money that’s generated from these public lands, the more money is deposited into Social Security, ultimately giving Americans a direct incentive or a direct revenue stream, a direct hand in the cookie jar to secure their own Social Security.”

The region will meet May 5-8 in Maui County, Hawaii for the WIR Conference, which will including programming on disaster recovery and the county’s continuing recovery from the 2023 Lahaina fire that devastated a region of the county, killing more than 100 people, destroying more than 2,000 homes and causing $5.5 billion in damage. WIR also announced that its 2027 conference would be held in Douglas County, Nev.