John Chenoweth: “Ranching on lands that are managed by the Federal Government is very different than ranching on lands that are managed…”

“Ranching on lands that are managed by the Federal Government is very different than ranching on lands that are managed by the State government. In fact, I would like to remind the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Vento] and the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] that, indeed, ranching on State land, you deal with primarily one agency. When we are ranching on Federal lands, we are dealing with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Energy, Parks from time to time, and now the tribes have more say in the governing of public lands. It goes on and on and on. The fact is is that ranchers are responsible for their own fences on public lands, watering, seeding, keeping up wildlife, improvement of wildlife ponds, keeping track of all the livestock when there are visitors on the land, recreationists who leave gates open, keeping track of what people are doing on the allotment. It is a whole different ball game. This is a very thoughtful formula. And, in fact, people like me, who represent people from the West, as does the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Smith], I personally feel like the good chairman has been far too generous with the Federal Government. But this is what we have agreed to. And I appreciate his concern.”