If you do not do that, you are going to find the same problem that we have in Utah.

It does not necessarily work that way.

That is because we have, as has been mentioned, a $12 billion maintenance backlog in the National Park Service by itself.

The President can do what the President wants to do. He has executive authority to create a monument without the blessing of Congress.

Those three criteria have not been done by the past three administrations.

To be a good steward and to conserve our resources, we have to manage those resources.

I still want what the Federal Government does to be compassionate and fair to the folks here in Maine.

Why don't we have more of these to make sure we know how the people feel about this issue?

I will not support any proposal that threatens our outdoor way of life, or somehow, in some way, restricts our access to hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and snowmobiling.

Unfortunately, no Democrat has found this hearing important enough to participate on the committee.

I want to make sure that Congress, not the White House, hears loudly and clearly the opinions of the folks that live in the Katahdin region.

That is one of the problems we have and one of the reasons we are trying to have this hearing.

If you actually think there is going to be access through that area, already the National Park Service closes roads even if they are public rights-of-way.

The problem was there was nobody in Utah who supported it, either the delegation, or the Governor, or the legislature, or anyone who lived in the area.

But nonetheless, everyone is always going to be impacted by these decisions one way or the other.

Even though you may think you are going to have a seat at the table on how this land is managed and what is done with it in the future, reality shows that you will not.

I work for 650,000 people who are hard-working that live in our 2nd district.

So, it is hard for me to understand why we are going to take land that is a working forest and cede all the rights to manage that land to the Federal Government, which does not have a very good track record of managing that land in the…