Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO, dated November 15, 2017. The letter provides notice that the Eastern Interior Resource Management Plan--Eastern Interior Plan--as well as the four resource management plans--RMP--that comprise the Eastern Interior Plan, signed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, and approved in Records of Decision, December 30, 2016, is a rule subject to the Congressional Review Act, CRA, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 801 et seq. I wrote to GAO on April 13, 2017, asking it to determine whether the Eastern Interior Plan, along with the RMPs for the Draanjik Planning Area, the Fortymile Planning Area, the Steese Planning Area, and the White Mountains Planning Area, constitute rules subject to the CRA. In response, as communicated in its letter of November 15, 2017, GAO determined that the Eastern Interior Plan is a rule and does not fall within any of the exceptions provided in the CRA. GAO reached the same conclusion with regard to each of the four RMPs that comprise the Eastern Interior Plan. Accordingly, with this GAO opinion and its publication in the Congressional Record, the Eastern Interior Plan rule, and the rules for each RMP will be subject to acongressional joint resolution of disapproval. The letter I am now submitting to be printed in the Congressional Record is the original document provided by GAO to my office.…”