GOP ends push of public land sales for mining

 House Republicans have dropped a provision in budget legislation that would have allowed the sale of public lands for mining.

Western senators had criticized the provision, which would have overturned an 11-year-old congressional ban that prevents mineral companies from "patenting," or buying, public land at cheap prices if the land contains mineral deposits.

Nevada Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., author of the mining legislation, revised the provision Monday in an attempt to gain some Western support. The new version dropped language that would have allowed the direct sale of some lands that no longer contained minerals.

On Tuesday, Gibbons said it was clear that even the revised provision would not make it through the Senate, where some senators had threatened to use parliamentary maneuvers to block it.

Critics - including hunters, anglers and several Democratic Western governors - said the legislation could prompt the sale of millions of acres of public lands.

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