Dale Bumpers: “for Members of this body who have not dealt with this issue on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this is a…”

“for Members of this body who have not dealt with this issue on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this is a slightly complex amendment. I am going to simplify it as best I can. We have had several hearings in the Energy Committee on it, but it deals with an issue that sounds so bizarre you would not believe it was actually on the statute books of this country. In 1866, Congress passed a bill which has become popularly known as R.S. 2477, Revised Statute 2477. What that law did, as part of the 1866 mining law, was to validate public highways built across unreserved public lands. That does not mean much, so here it is. The United States owns 350 million acres of land in the lower 48 States. Since 1866, we have set aside millions and millions of acres in wilderness areas, national parks, monuments, all kind of things since 1866. But bear in mind, the R.S. 2477 statute said 'unreserved lands,' so that meant all of the public lands the United States owns that have not been set aside for another purpose.”