Thank you very much. I am going to mess up this name, as well. Once again, I will apologize in advance.

Chairman Bishop sharply questioned whether the Ute Indian Tribe and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition had a strong and ongoing relationship to the lands and resources contained within the Bears Ears National Monument.

I am pleased to announce that I am initiating a process to develop Federal legislation.

I believe the bill put forward by Congressman Curtis is fair, inclusive, and it is necessary.

What we are talking about is, how do we empower people who actually have a close tie, an ancestral tie, a family tie to be able to make real decisions, not mock decisions, but real decisions?

I believe Utah is ready to move away from the tired arguments of the past.

I believe we are in the midst of a paradigm shift.

This new legislative effort puts all of us in the best possible position to ensure the area is managed in a way that truly takes into account perspectives of national and local tribes, multiple stakeholders, and the interests of Utahans.

The Commission is a fraud. It is a sham. They get to advise, but the advice can easily be rejected.

Clearly the administration can give tribes coordination. But we all know what that means. It means tribes can participate in all the meetings. It means tribes can listen to the discussion. It means tribes can even make recommendations. But…

The Bears Ears National Monument movement has been in the works for a long time. This was discussed long ago by conservation groups that wanted to protect the lands that we know and love. They were hesitant at first to get tribes involved…

If we do the legislative approach and we go forward, we can throw strikes, because home plate doesn't move.

Do you authorize money and manpower?

This idea that we did not have any of those discussions is one of the most bogus claims that happens to be there.

One of the things I would like to also illustrate is we were criticized in written testimony of having no input or being allowed no process with it.

The people who came here from a distance and will return to a distance had to GPS the Bears Ears to get there.

I hope we can come together and work in good faith, recognizing that we all want these lands to remain public.

I have long said it is not the use of the Antiquities Act, but rather the abuse of the Antiquities Act--by presidents of both parties--that requires Congress to carefully review this law.