Sen. Harry Reid on Nevada cattle dispute: 'It's not over'

By Catalina Camia 15 hours ago Follow @ccamia


9.7k shares SHARE

TWEET

EMAIL



Share this image:


Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy addresses supporters after the federal Bureau of Land Management agrees to cease roundup of his family’s cattle. (Jason Bean, Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)



Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is weighing in on a high-profile dispute between a Nevada cattle rancher and the federal Bureau of Land Management.


“Well, it’s not over,” Reid, D-Nev., told KRNV-TV in Reno on Monday. “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it’s not over.”


The feds on Saturday released about 400 head of cattle it had seized from Cliven Bundy, whom the bureau says owes more than $1 million in grazing fees for letting his livestock eat on public lands.


States’ rights supporters had showed up to back up Bundy, who contends the government is overreaching and the land around his farm belongs to Nevada. The feds say Bundy’s cows are grazing on habitat of the endangered desert tortoise, which is under their control. Bundy stopped paying monthly grazing fees in 1993.


BLM spokesman Craig Leff told the Associated Press the agency would try to resolve the matter with Bundy “administratively and judicially.”


In a radio interview Monday with Glenn Beck, Bundy said Monday his dispute with the BLM goes beyond livestock grazing.


“I feel it’s a constitutional thing; it’s a state sovereignty thing; it’s a county government thing,” Bundy said, according to the Las Vegas Sun.