Joel Hefley: “I do not want to prolong this. I think we have said what needs to be said. The gentleman repeated several times that…”

“I do not want to prolong this. I think we have said what needs to be said. The gentleman repeated several times that this is his district, his district, his district, as if it is in his district, we ought to do it. When I got on the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands several years ago, I discovered that a lot of Members were bringing parks home to their district, whether they had any merit or not. Steamtown, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) may remember Steamtown is one of them. Our good friend Joe McDade brought that one home. I guess this has a whole lot more merit than that did, by the way. So there is interest by people when that is not in their district. There is interest in that park, or whether it is a park or not. I do not know if the gentleman heard me, because I think the gentleman was talking to one of his staff at the time, but when the gentleman starts talking about draining water out from under the Dunes, I have no intention, and the gentleman knows that, of draining water out from under the Dunes. The gentleman is absolutely right; you take that water, and the Dunes go away. The water has to stay there. I want the water to stay there, not just for the Dunes, but I want the water in the San Luis Valley to stay in the San Luis Valley. I do not want it coming to the Eastern Slope or the big cities.”