May 22, 2003

Honorable Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Boxer:

I am writing you about three major concerns I have and asking you to please take action to address these crucial matters.

First, President Bush's tax plan is nothing less than a vast gift to this country's most wealthy. Both the Senate and House plans are deeply flawed and favor the rich. Neither will do anything to address the slumping economy but instead will leave a one trillion dollar debt. I fear that one day the U.S. will be relegated to the fate of countries such as Bolivia that spend 90% of the GDP servicing their debts. I'm sorry, but cutting taxes on dividends is not going to create jobs. Bush sounds a little mentally unstable when he travels around the country saying he is trying to create jobs by cutting taxes for the rich. Please stop this ridiculous tax plan.

Secondly, I am calling on the senate to censure Senator Rick Santorum for his outrageous inappropriate remarks lumping gays with incest, bigamy, and adultery and for saying there is no right to privacy in this country even though the Supreme Court says there is. I believe the senate should publicly censure Santorum to let him know that the senate and the public do not approve of his remarks.

The last concern I would like you to address is the recent agreement between Utah Governor, Mike Leavitt and the Interior Department allowing the State of Utah to claim rights-of-way on public lands in Utah. The agreement is wrong because it will allow the state of Utah and its counties to assert claims to so called roads across pristine wilderness where no road actually exists. I have hiked extensively in Utah including in the Grand Staircase Area and many of the so called roads are nothing more than animal trails and places where locals in trucks have illegally driven over fragile desert ecosystems creating ugly scars in previously unadulterated areas. The agreement provides no real protection for National Parks, Wilderness Areas, or Wildlife Refuges since the state of Utah and its counties will now be free to send reckless off highway vehicle drivers to pursue these bogus claims in federal court. It also does not provide for public involvement until after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has made damaging decisions to turn routes on public lands, my land, over to the state. It provides for no review of potential environmental impact on these wholesale giveaways. In essence it allows the state of Utah to claim what are basically paths and foot trails and turn them into highways. The agreement invites other states to do likewise. The crux of my disagreement with the interior department decision is that it leaves beautiful, precious wilderness in Utah vulnerable to destruction.

I also object to the Interior Department agreement to withdraw all wilderness study areas (WSA). WSAs were one of the few ways to keep illegal OHV drivers off of critical wilderness areas. Isn't the interior department required to keep WSA inventories updated pursuant to the Federal Land Policies and Management Act (FLPMA) section 201? I do not agree with the interior department decision to stop the BLM from all wilderness reviews unless there is support from local officials. Decisions on public lands should be left to the federal government not local officials. I am asking you to please take immediate action to rectify the Interior Department's recent abdication of its responsibilities by forcing it to comply with the FLPMA and reinstate wilderness inventories and wilderness study areas. Also I would like congress to step in and stop the Interior Department agreement to allow the state of Utah to claim phony rights-of-way by enacting legislation to protect in perpetuity public lands in Utah from all development including these bogus rights-of-way and Bush's plans to drill for oil in and around Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

Sincerely,

Michelle Brodie