WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration voiced a familiar refrain on Thursday when it came out against a plan to sell off public land in White Pine County while creating new wilderness and expanding parks.

A Bush official said a bill that would reconfigure federal property in the rural, eastern Nevada county was unacceptable because profits from public land sales would remain within the state.

The official's comments echoed the administration's dislike for previous laws that authorize disposal of excess federal land in Clark and Lincoln counties while specifying the proceeds be spent locally or dedicated for Nevada purposes.

"The administration believes that all American taxpayers should benefit from the sale of public lands," Chad Calvert, Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals, said at a Senate hearing.

Nevada senators who wrote the White Pine bill shrugged at the opposition, which had been expected.

While the Bush administration's position may not be helpful, the senators might still try to pass it before the end of the year during the congressional lame duck session, aides said.

"We are the legislative branch of government, and we have as much right to move legislation forward as they have to oppose it," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., defended the bill at a review session held by the Senate public lands and forests subcommittee.

Ensign said the idea of using Western land profits to offset the federal budget deficit, as the Bush administration has proposed, was a misnomer.

"We all know if the money goes into the Treasury it would not go into deficit reduction but just to other projects around the country," he said.

The measure, which was introduced in August, would authorize the Bureau of Land Management to identify up to 45,000 federal acres in White Pine County that could be scheduled for auction over time.

Profits would be divided, with 5 percent going into the state education fund, 10 percent for White Pine law enforcement and transportation planning, and the rest for wilderness management in the county.

Reid and Ensign said the land sales would spur growth and the economy in eastern Nevada.

"Is it asking too much in a county that is 95 percent federally owned to put up a few acres for private ownership?" Reid said.

The broad measure also would create 13 new wilderness areas in the county, while expanding two others. It would add property to two state parks and enlarge an industrial park.

The bill also contains Southern Nevada provisions, allowing profits from Clark County land sales to be spent on the "cash for grass" water conservation program and for state parks. Those sales have netted $2.7 billion since 1998.

At the Senate hearing, the White Pine County bill drew support from a county commissioner and from an environmental representative, although both suggested amendments.

Jerry Greenberg, vice president of the Wilderness Society, asked subcommittee Chairman Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to consider adding wilderness in the Blue Mass/Kern Mountains near the Utah border, in the Antelope Range north and east of Ely, and in the South Egan Range in the southern part of the county.

County Commission Chairman Brent Eldridge proposed adding $30 million for renovations to Comins Lake Dam, and expanding water and waste treatment plants serving growing neighborhoods in Steptoe Valley.

Eldridge also asked that White Pine County be allowed to apply for projects drawn from the Clark County land fund, similar to what was worked out for Lincoln County in 2004.

The county also wants funding to extend groundwater studies, he said. Also, many county residents do not support adding 3,536 acres to the Ely Shoshone tribe's reservation, he said.

"If we don't get those things, so be it," Eldridge said after the hearing. "This is not an ultimatum."