I want to thank my colleague from California for reminding all of us that there are consequences for what we do here. This current wholly manufactured debt crisis has people very, very nervous. The women that Ms. Speier talked about…

Reclaiming my time, sir, my apologies for interrupting you. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman from California has expired. (On request of Mr. Hastings of Washington and by unanimous consent, Mr. Garamendi was allowed to proceed…

The amendment that's being offered is perfectly appropriate. It's the duty of the Department of the Interior to carry out the law. The law requires the Secretary to review, from time to time, the status of public land. All too often, I…

Thank you for that accommodation. I think the underlying problem was well described by you, and that is that the language prohibits the Secretary from going forward with the study of the wild lands. I think that's wrong. I think it's…

I think you're down to parsing words here. The study that was attempted to be undertaken by the Secretary was to study the lands for their wild land values. He obviously could not designate a wild land that doesn't exist. But that study…

It's useful to read, and the characteristic of order No. 3310, which is the subject matter, was well described by the gentleman from Washington--if one were to read the order, the order basically directs the Bureau of Land Management to…

In fact, the Secretarial order does follow the law. It precisely follows the law.

I thank the gentleman from Washington and our colleague on the other side. It's useful to read the Secretarial order rather than all of the hullabaloo of what this is all about. The Secretarial order follows the law. It says that the BLM…

I believe that's precisely what they're trying to do is tell the Secretary not to follow the law.

When I was the Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior, I thought that the Department of the Interior should do what it needed to do. Now that I'm here I would agree with you that they should do what we tell them to do. Just a…

I was just listening to the debate here, saying: What are they thinking? What is the rationale? What is the purpose for the legislation that we have before us, more pointedly, the amendment that was just offered? This is an incredible…

What a fortuitous moment to have the opportunity to follow my colleague from California. Indeed, I do know something about the Interior budget. I was the Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior, and I know full good and well…