John Hansen: “Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4579 introduced by myself, would facilitate a major land exchange between the Secretary of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4579 introduced by myself, would facilitate a major land exchange between the Secretary of the Interior and the State of Utah. Within the West Desert of Utah lies hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness study areas. For decades now, the school trust has owned lands within these WSAs with no ability to generate revenues from these lands, which is their constitutional mandate. Earlier in this Congress, the Secretary and the school trust began negotiating a land exchange to remove these lands from the WSAs to ensure that those lands would not be developed and to ensure that the school children of Utah could benefit from the lands they have owned since statehood. This exchange trades approximately 106,000 acres of State land for approximately 106,000 acres of Federal land. This is an equal value exchange that benefits both the conservation of our lands and the school children of Utah. We bring to the floor today an amended version of the legislation which ensures that the values are equal and that the work of the State and the Department of Interior will be independently reviewed. I appreciate the minority working with us and the Department to craft an amendment that guarantees this as an equal value exchange. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4579.”