Brian Bilbray: “H.R. 15 will designate as wilderness area 18,500 acres of Otay Mountain, a rugged area along the U.S.-Mexico border in…”

“H.R. 15 will designate as wilderness area 18,500 acres of Otay Mountain, a rugged area along the U.S.-Mexico border in southern San Diego County. It is a stunning place, where people can still go and see how the neighborhood looked when Father Serra entered California over 200 years ago. H.R. 15 is a bipartisan consensus effort made possible by strong support from many different interest groups in an effort to work together. Both local, Federal and State agencies were involved, including the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the Endangered Habitats League, the California Department of Forestry, the Border Patrol, the Departments of Justice and Interior, and Secretary Babbitt, who toured the area himself and addressed it in December. I want to specifically thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen), the chairman of the subcommittee, and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the chairman of the full committee, for their strong support of H.R. 15. I also wish to sincerely thank my colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, whose strong support of the Otay Mountain wilderness area and this legislation has been critical to its success. I look forward to working with her on the bill as it moves to the Senate. The unique thing, Mr. Speaker, about H.R. 15 is it serves as an example of how we can dovetail two apparently conflicting strategies of State and Federal agencies and make them work together in a cooperative purpose.”