Dale Bumpers: “first of all, I want to make one point that perhaps has not been made, and that is that this amendment only applies on…”

“first of all, I want to make one point that perhaps has not been made, and that is that this amendment only applies on Federal lands. Bear in mind, all mining does not occur on Federal lands. There are all kinds of mines in this country on private lands. There are some on State lands. I might also say that we have given away 3.2 million acres of land in the past 126 years. Well, we did not give it away; we charged $2.50 an acre for it. Lands the size of the State of Connecticut we have given to the mining industry in the past 126 years to mine on. Do you know what else? They own it. We gave them a deed for $2.50 an acre, and they own it. And these regulations do not apply to people who own their own land. The States regulate that. One other point I want to make is that I believe the Senator from Idaho indicated something about my political position, my political base. No. 1, there is no political base on mining in my State. There is a political base for being on the side of keeping the environment as clean as possible, but that is not unique to my State. I assume that there are some people even in Idaho and Alaska who want to keep the environment as clean as possible. Let me say, as the Senators tick off all the laws that the mining industry has to comply with--clean air, clean water, reclamation--tell us which one of those you want to repeal.”