David says:

Great website Rep. Dougall and Sen. Urquhart. I think that a significant amount of money is wasted every year to support the State's R.S. 2477 litigation. I think the budget for R.S. 2477 litigation is around $2 million every year. R.S. 2477 litigation involves attempts by the State of Utah and rural counties to assert ownership over faint two-track roads traversing public lands. They worry that eventually the federal government could prevent them from using these roads. The only way to definitively get title to these claimed routes is through the courts. While it is understandable that rural counties may be interested in these routes, this is a wasteful expenditure that should be cut in these difficult times. Utah has been spending this R.S. 2477 money every year for more than a decade and yet we still do not have one single R.S. 2477 claim validated. Furthermore, the routes the State and the counties are contesting are usually Class D roads (unmaintained dirt roads). They generally do not access anything other than a dead end or a vista; these are not the dirt roads that connect rural towns or that access coal mines or gas wells. The fight revolves around these roads because the federal government never threatens the State's use of the maintained, obvious roads that really matter. In the end, we flush millions down the drain every year to try and take title of faint tracks in the desert and mountains that are not necessary for our transportation infrastructure in the first place. This money would be put to better use funding education, repairing our vital highways, or helping with human services. Let's cut the R.S. 2477 budget.