Dale Bumpers

The Senator will recall the distinguished Senator from Idaho, [Mr. Kempthorne], led the fight here to provide that the Federal Government in the future must pay the States for any mandates we impose on them and for which we do not provide…

Well, essentially that is right, but what I am saying is at present we do not give the States but I think maybe $4-plus million, which is not nearly enough.

I think it might be helpful if we engaged in a few questions and answers to understand precisely what this amendment is. I have not been sure all along I understood it. There is presently a Federal law which prohibits the sale of…

I don't think it would be appropriate for the Senate to take a position on the issue of liability. That is for the courts to decide.

Let me close with one observation, because I did not have the correct figure a while ago. Last year's bill, last year's Senate energy and water bill, the same bill we have on the floor right now, provided $270 million more than the…

I think $17 billion is the right figure, roughly $17 billion in nuclear, is there not, in the bill?

Let me say, the $268 billion defense authorization bill we passed last evening, does that include the roughly $17 billion in this bill for nuclear weapons?

I have to make this point one more time. The Senator talks about Don Hodel consulting with everybody. Bruce Babbitt had 3,000 comments from the public. Why is it that Don Hodel with a few Republican Senators and Congressmen around him…

I don't think many minds are being changed with this debate. I don't see any reason to pursue it because we have a 180-degree difference of opinion on it. I personally think that the law is fairly clear on it. The policy of Donald Hodel is…

Everybody knows exactly why Don Hodel came up with that policy--because the Western Senators threatened him probably with death if he didn't. Everybody knows that policy was crazy. It was done for political purposes. We all know that. I am…

The Senator from Alaska is saying that Donald Hodel, who was Secretary of the Interior, had nothing to do with the development of policy--that the Department did it. Now does the Senator separate the Secretary of the Interior from the…

Let me ask this question. What right does Don Hodel have to set out what an existing right was in 1988?

First, the first thing the Secretary has to do before he can approve an application is to determine whether it was a valid existing right before 1976.

All he is saying is that in this ruling the State law will apply as long as it is consistent with Federal law. To do anything else, to issue a rule of any other kind, gives the States carte blanche over all unreserved Federal land. They…

No. I will finish reading, and then I will yield the floor. The role of State law: He says, ``In making its recommendations, the agency shall apply State law in effect from 1976 to the extent that it is consistent with Federal law.''

That is the very point I am getting ready to make. Simply because somebody drove a covered wagon or group of covered wagons over land heading west, or it was a footpath used by people who walked on it, to suggest those paths now constitute…

And anything you built prior to the repeal of this law in 1976 is yours. Nobody is trying to take that away from you.

Senator, let me answer that by saying the fact that Alaska was, until recently, a frontier State, as was all of the West not too many years ago. To suggest that simply because the West was settled by pioneers who made wagon tracks or where…

Now, Mr. President, I hate to read to my distinguished colleague, but it will be helpful to clarify the record about this ``terrible'' Babbitt policy. He did not think it was a good idea to allow the States to come in here and claim a…

In 14 years, the Secretary of Energy has had the discretion, which we gave the Secretary, to raise this 1 mill fee to whatever it would take to pay the utilities' share of the program's cost. In 14 years, he or she has never seen fit to…

Some concerns were raised in the last Congress, with respect to a similar bill, that such legislation might adversely affect users of propane by interfering with propane markets or artificially stimulating the demand for propane. Does the…

How will the PERC distinguish between education and market promotion? What might be some examples, of activities that are intended to be permitted under this bill, and activities that are not?

My office has contacted representatives of the Corps of Engineers and they share our interpretation that this provision, as drafted, cannot adversely impact ratepayers. As stated by my colleague from Arkansas, we have no intention that…

This amendment originally required that anybody who held more than 2,000 AUM's would have to pay whatever the State charged for lands in that State on any AUM's in excess of 2,000. I have the very distinct impression it would not make any…

I take it from the Senator's comments that the fact that Montana gets $4.05 an acre and the U.S. Government gets $1.35 an acre, the Senator sees nothing wrong with that. In the private sector in Montana, people who lease private lands to…