2012 Scorecard Vote
Representative Chip Cravaack (R-MN) sponsored H.R. 5544, the Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act, which would ratify a problematic land exchange of approximately 86,000 acres of Minnesota School Trust Lands within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for unidentified federal lands within the Superior or Chippewa National Forests in Minnesota. While it is understandable that the State of Minnesota would seek to utilize school trust lands, this bill would not protect lands with high recreational or ecological value, and it would bypass standards and laws that ensure land exchanges are in the taxpayers' interests, transparent, and accountable to the public. On September 12, the House approved H.R. 5544 by a vote of 225-189 (House roll call vote 568). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate took no action on this legislation.
pro-environment position