Dale Bumpers: “The Senator has no right to complain. He says to the Secretary, ``No, no, no.'' He should not come to this floor…”

“The Senator has no right to complain. He says to the Secretary, ``No, no, no.'' He should not come to this floor squawking, because he stopped the Secretary from trying to come up with some kind of a sensible rule. So, in 1997, and I have been trying to get to this for about 15 minutes, here is the policy that the Secretary of the Interior issued. It is a good, sane, sensible policy. If the Stevens amendment on this bill stays in, he torpedoes this policy of 1997, and we go back to the abomination called the Hodel rule. Now, you choose. If you think the Hodel rule was right--as I say, by moving a few stones, mowing a little grass, anything to try to make it look like you have been doing a little construction, or you listen to the policy developed by Secretary Babbitt, and here is the first item: An entity wishing the Secretary or any agencies of the Department of Interior to make a determination as to whether R.S. 2477 right-of-way exists shall file a written request with the Interior agency having jurisdiction over the lands underlying the asserted right-of-way, along with an explanation of why there is a compelling and immediate need for such a determination.”