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Washington • The federal government isn't a partner with Western states as much as it is a long-distance dictator.
Or at least that was the sentiment Wednesday as four Western governors, including Utah's Gary Herbert, testified before Western members of Congress and called for a return of states' rights, a halt to federal intrusion and more limited regulation.
"Instead of serving as laboratories of democracy, states are asked to spend an increasing amount of time and resources serving the wishes of the federal government," Herbert told the House Natural Resources Committee. "And when you ask or demand us to do something and you say, 'Here are the strings and if you don't do it our way, you won't get the federal money' — that needs to change."
The hearing was titled, in part, "Respecting State Authority," and it was the opposite of a federal government love fest. Its main features were the 10th Amendment, with its dictate that powers are reserved to the states, and "The Federalist Papers," cited for their arguments that states are more powerful than the central government.
Western states account for 94 percent of America's federally managed land, and that doesn't sit well with the Western officials unhappy with the feds' management of forests, oil and gas leasing, and water rights.
That's not to mention some criticism — most pointedly by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah — of the Interior Department's handling of the sage grouse. The feds didn't list the chicken-size animal, which used to number in the millions, as endangered, but Bishop said federal management plans give it a "de facto listing."
Bishop, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, opened Wednesday's hearing, saying President Barack Obama's administration has ramped up executive orders, regulations and policies "tightening the grip" on Western states "and rapidly eroding" the 10th Amendment.
"I refuse to accept the notion," he said, "that the West has to be protected from itself."
What would Westerners like better?
"Each of us respects the authority of the other states," Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead, chairman of the Western Governors' Association, said in written testimony. "We wish for the federal government and federal agencies to show the same respect for Western states that we show each other."
The only Democrat to testify, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, agreed with his gubernatorial colleagues that the one-size-fits-all approach from Washington — a phrase tossed around a lot Wednesday — wasn't always the best.
"A lot of the solutions will be found on the ground," Bullock said.
But he disagreed with the call for states to take over federal lands, an idea popular with the Republican governors and lawmakers.
"For one thing, we simply couldn't afford to own and be responsible for managing all of those lands," he added. "We'd be forced to sell some of them off."
Herbert, who heads the National Governors Association, noted that he supports efforts to take control of federal lands but said that privatizing that acreage wouldn't be part of the plan.
"We're a public-land state now," Herbert said. "We'll be a public-land state in the future."
The Democratic side of the committee room was sparse for most of the hearing.
During his question time, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., offered a bit of a complaint to his GOP cohorts, reminding them that Congress continues to move legislation that would override state water laws.
"Too often, I think, the majority here sometimes forgets its own rhetoric on states' rights when it comes to taking on state laws they just don't agree with," Huffman said. "We've seen that on multiple occasions."
While the federal government may be the boogeyman for Western officials, no one who spoke Wednesday suggested boycotting the federal funds that come the states' way. Toward the end of the hearing, Huffman noted that Congress created a fund in 1902 to help build water projects in 17 Western states but since the 1990s, the legislative body hasn't appropriated any funds, so the money flows elsewhere.
"As governors," Huffman asked, "would you prefer that money go to drought mitigation and adaptation programs that you have highlighted?"
Herbert noted that his state has the Central Utah Project — established in the 1950s to bring water to the Wasatch Front — and he would rather see money go there.
"I'd just like to get that finished," Herbert said. "I'd like to finish the project we've got first."