The Senator from Florida also brought up another issue that I think is worth exploring. It is my understanding that he was recently briefed on the relationship that exists between these drug cartels and the entities that are actually…

I thank the Senator from Florida for continuing to be an advocate for this cause. I know that Southern Command's annual budget now is about $1 billion--literally $1 billion out of $550 billion in the Department of Defense. Given the…

If the Senator from Florida will yield for a moment, having formerly served on the House Armed Services Committee, I know the Department of Defense budget is somewhere in the order of $550 billion. Surely SOUTHCOM must have a substantial…

Mr. President, I say to my colleague from Oregon, his leadership, along with Senator Crapo, on this firefighting budgeting and fire borrowing issue--that is really what it is--is critical to all of us in Western States. Every single one of…

If the Senator from Florida will yield for a minute, the sad thing is it didn't used to be that way in this part of Central America, and I know that for a fact because my wife and I traveled there 15, 16 years ago. We traveled extensively…

I think that would better serve the land and frankly, better serve our constituents.

Our public lands provide some of the best hunting and fishing opportunities for American families.

We view Senator Heinrich's HUNT Act as an important step forward in the issue of making public lands public.

The bill targets lands that are technically open to the public but are impossible to reach legally because there is no public trail or road leading to them.

The HUNT Act is meant to deal in easements purely on a voluntary basis.

The Department strongly supports the goal of making access to both public lands and to information about the public lands available to the public.

There's a lot more work to be done. One of the things I'm interested in doing is making sure that the priority that this takes is commensurate with the interest from local residents.

We don't know what we don't know.

I think, if they were adequately prioritized you wouldn't see the kind of incredibly broad support.

I wanted to just take a moment and express my willingness to work with the Senator from Nevada on his search and rescue legislation.

I would just ask quickly for unanimous consent to offer a couple of letters, recent letters, into the record in support of the HUNT Act.

As a hunter himself, Sen. Heinrich probably knows from personal experience the disappointment of finding a locked gate and blocked access to land that should be open to the public but is not.

You shouldn't have to use a helicopter to access public lands.