14 Tee SAUD t0 IB ONG Bs aL ere, 
Senate Interior Committee Reports Its 
National Land Use Policy Proposal, and Issues 
‘Background Papers On National Land Use Policy’ 
Senator Henry M. Jackson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior 
and Insular Affairs, announced in June issuance of a Committee publica- 
tion entitled, “Background Papers on National Land Use Policy,’ a com- 
pilation of studies relating to his Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance 
Act (S632), ordered reported to the Senate on June 5 by the Committee. 
In remarks made in connection with the publication’s release, Jackson 
stated that America is faced with a “national land use crisis which will 
require a major planning and management effort by individual States and 
the Federal government if needless waste and conflicts are to be resolved 
and the needs of the American people are to be met. 
“The States must exercise ‘States rights’ and assume responsibility 
for the development of State land use programs, and the Federal govern- 
ment must provide the necessary financial assistance. The Land Use Policy 
and Planning Assistance Act, which I proposed and the Committee reported, 
provides the authorization to meet both of these important national needs.” 
The Background Papers publication includes summaries and an analy- 
sis of the Jackson Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act and of 
other land use policy bills pending before Congress, a chronology and dis- 
cussion of significant State and Federal land use legislation, and a sum- 
mary of the land use jurisdiction of Congressional Committees. Federal 
programs which significantly affect land use policy and the increasingly 
active and innovative role of States in the formulation of land use policy 
are also discussed. 
Upon releasing the publication, Senator Jackson urged enactment this 
year of S. 632, the Land Use Policy and Planning Assistance Act. 
“Most environmental problems can be traced to past decisions as to 
how our land is used,” Jackson stated. ‘No longer can this nation afford 
to have land use decisions, which are of wide public interest, made on the 
basis of expediency, short-term economic considerations, and other factors 
unrelated to what should be the real concerns of sound land use policy. 
“The potential dimensions of the national land use crisis are immense,” 
Jackson stated. “Urban sprawl consumes an area of land the size of New 
Jersey every decade. We must build the equivalent of 21%% times the Oak- 
land-San Francisco metropolitan region each year to meet the nation’s 
housing goals. In the next two decades, one industry alone — the energy 
industry — will require vast areas of land: new high-voltage transmission 
lines will consume three million acres of new rights-of-way, while 225 new 
