Mesabi Daily News
Jerry Burnes
The meetings were set in a private hallway on Capitol Hill last week, just outside the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar emerged first, and at a separate meeting time U.S. Sen. Al Franken briefly left the hearing for one of President Trump’s most important appointments.
A coalition of six representatives from the Iron Range were waiting for the lawmakers, packets of information in hand.
The gatherings were orchestrated as part of a larger effort by the Range delegation to persuade Washington to roll back a proposed mining activity moratorium on more than 234,000 acres of federal lands in the Superior National Forest. Less than a week earlier, the U.S. Forest Service collected public comments and extended the deadline by 120 days, but the cordial face-to-face time with senators, congressmen and agencies was a measured lobbying effort to hear the impacts from the Range itself.