On the recordFebruary 10, 2011
By the way, 1,600,000 laws on the books today were never voted on by anybody. Not ever voted on. It costs $1.01 trillion a year to implement those regulations. You want to balance the budget? Eliminate those regulations and you can balance it in 13 years. We could have industry again. I'm just saying this is a good idea. Let's pass it. Federal policies and regulations stand in the way of economic progress and free enterprise for all Americans, but the problem is especially bad in Indian Country. Indian reservations have the highest rates of unemployment and poverty of any comparable areas in America. These statistics are astounding when you consider that tribes own an estimated ten percent of the Nation's energy potential. But so many tribal lands lie vacant and unused. The problem is that development of Indian land is based on outdated, paternalistic Federal laws and policies. Let me describe a few examples of these laws and policies. We have the Long-Term Leasing Act . . . a 56-year-old statute that restricts most Indians from leasing their property for more than 25 year terms. In some cases this has prevented tribes from constructing new homes. There is the National Environmental Policy Act, a law routinely used to delay and stop the use of lands reserved exclusively for tribes under solemn treaties with the United States. The Endangered Species Act has become the weapon choice by special interests seeking to harm tribal development.
