On the recordJuly 26, 2011
I am offering this amendment on behalf of and in cooperation with Representative Paul Broun of Georgia, who could not be here tonight. What this amendment does is it would zero out all of the land acquisition programs within the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, thus placing more than $50 million in the Spending Reduction Account in order to reduce our national debt. The Federal Government already owns more than 650 million acres of land, or about 30 percent of the total land area of the United States. We can't even take good care of the lands that the Federal Government already owns. An example of this is that the Park Service has a current backlog of several billions of dollars of repairs and maintenance in our beautiful national parks. At a time when we are facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis, the Federal Government needs to focus its energy on taking better care of the land it already has rather than purchasing additional acres. Our Federal agencies have enough on their plate, and if we zero out these land acquisition programs, we can save a significant amount of money. Mr. Chair, we cannot spend our way out of the debt dilemma. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and to send more than $50 million toward paying down our national debt. I yield back the balance of my time.
