An overwhelming majority of Utahans, and Americans for that matter, have rejected the Federal one size fits all approach to wilderness in Utah.

If the end goal is to further inflate the acreage in this bill thus allowing the organizations to exist in perpetuity, then it is going to be a long, rocky road.

In fact, all of that money and all of that effort has produced exactly zero acres of new wilderness in Utah.

We have listened to all interested parties and especially to those stakeholders with the most at stake, as we should, and by collaboration and inclusion, we have had success.

The special interest groups who are behind this bill have raised tens of millions of dollars over the years with the promise to their donors that the money would be spent to protect important tracts of beautiful red rock in Utah.

This proposal turns that principle on its head.

It is wrong that this legislation turns a completely deaf ear to these most significant stakeholders.

Successful and responsible conservation should and will be achieved when Americans who have the most at stake are listened to and respected and not treated as a nuisance and deemed irrelevant.

Clearly, such legislation is being pushed by interests that are out of touch and do not represent the views of those American citizens that would be directly affected by this legislation.

Our goal should be to empower people, not make mandatory solutions.

This bill, produced without a map so we know exactly where they want to do, has had some research done.

There are four concerns that I have with this piece of legislation.

We can and should protect America's great natural spaces, yet it should not be done in a dictatorial manner that freezes out and refuses to even consider the views of local citizens and local leaders that would be directly affected.

I am deeply troubled by legislation whose sponsors live far from the communities and districts whose legislation they are targeting.

This particular bill is a relic from the past. It has not been successful since the Age of Disco and will not be successful now or in the future.

What we need to do is go forward with the process that almost every editorial in the State of Utah says: Try to come to local consensus with people coming together where the government agrees with individuals, not having something coming…

The reason why I am Chairman of the Western Caucus, if for no other reason, is because all the colored land in there is land that is owned by the Federal government.

I would be surprised if there were many Members of Congress who would not take at least some offense at a proposal to set aside a sixth of their state or district without their consultation or input.