Dale Bumpers: “let me explain to my colleagues the difference between this amendment and my amendment that you voted on earlier this…”

“let me explain to my colleagues the difference between this amendment and my amendment that you voted on earlier this year. In March, I offered an amendment that increased the Federal grazing fee for all permittees and those who controlled more than 2,000 animal unit months paid a higher fee. This amendment is different. I have raised the ante to provide that, unless a permittee controls 5,000 animal unit months, he is totally unaffected by my amendment. In fact, any permittee who controls less than 5,000 animal unit months pays the present grazing fee. Let me go back. What is an animal unit month? When you lease lands to graze cattle on Federal lands, you lease it by what is called an AUM, or animal unit month. That is the amount of grass it takes to feed one cow and her calf for 1 month. Some ranchers, for example those in southern Arizona and New Mexico, graze 12 months a year. However, most of the permittees only graze 4 or 5 months because there is not any grass in the winter months. So you can calculate, based on the current rate of $1.35 an AUM, how much a permittee is paying. Why is this important? It is not the money. It is the principle. Mr. President, grazing occurs on 270 million acres of our Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, all Federal lands belonging to the taxpayers of this country--270 million acres.…”