All Quotes

If this were easy it would have been done by now.

Let there be no mistake about it, Congressman Simpson is the person who has done--has put in all the hours on this.

The needs of the people who live and recreate in the area are as important as the lines that we draw on a map.

While this bill is not perfect, and does need some more work, Senator Risch and I are going to continue working with the stakeholders from the motorized recreation community to address access issues.

I offer my thanks to Sen. Mike Crapo for his leadership.

We have to undertake these efforts together in a consensus based manner. If we do not, we will never find our way forward.

I know that it's possible.

You know in Idaho we have the largest block, I believe, of wilderness in the continental United States of contiguous wilderness area.

In May I introduced the Tony Dean Cheyenne River Valley Conservation Act to establish the first grasslands wilderness area in the U.S.

As they often say, politics is the art of the possible.

I believe that you worked in good faith on it.

Our challenge today is to rise above the noise and provide leadership that represents the true majority who sit squarely in the center and want to see collaborative conservation advance in the West.

We too, have traveled this path of collaborative conservation on the Owyhee Canyon lands.

It is NOT the way Senator Bennet developed his Washington County, Utah Wilderness bill.

The old approach of wilderness, of sacrificing the needs of one individual or specific user group to benefit the others will not work anymore.

I also thank Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Murkowski for working with me and Senator Risch on this bill.

I'm interested more in hearing on the procedural basis, how we get to the consensus that we need.

These things are difficult, but not impossible.