Calvin Dooley: “I rise in support of this Forage Improvement Act. I think that the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith] needs to be…”

“I rise in support of this Forage Improvement Act. I think that the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith] needs to be complimented in his efforts to reach out to people in the environmental community and stakeholders, as well as Federal Government, in order to try to find a way that we can put to rest an issue that has been very contentious in its consideration in past Congresses. I think what the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith] has done is to embody some of the proposals that the Department of the Interior has been trying to utilize to ensure that we have greater cooperation from people throughout the community, as well as environmentalists so that we can ensure that the interests of the taxpayers and interests of the public trust is maintained. I think he is also moving forward in a responsible manner, too, by asking that we revise the formula in which we calculate the price per AUM and that this bill will result in an increase of almost 36 percent in the price of rangeland. And that means benefits that are going to accrue to the taxpayers. What is also important is, I think, he is putting it in a place in which we are going to have more of a collaborative effort to ensure that the public lands are used in a manner which is going to benefit all of us.”