Haley Stevens: “What the Secretary is doing now concerns taking action under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and section…”

“What the Secretary is doing now concerns taking action under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and section 701(h) of the law is specific ``All actions by the Secretary concerned * * * shall be subject to valid existing rights.'' By what power does he redefine now what was a valid existing right in 1976? He wasn't Secretary in 1976. What happens to the women who are out there in those small villages and cities today? They have to be flown into town to go to the hospital. It is going to take a few miles to get the roads to them. And we are going to get the roads to them, as long as we have the right to build the roads. We have the ability to deliver mail by road rather than by air. The Senator from Arkansas and others have been telling us, ``Stop that subsidy for Alaska.'' And for their mail, it costs $100 million more a year to deliver mail in Alaska because it all goes by air rather than similar places in the southern 48 because there it goes by road. By what right does this Secretary of the Interior determine what was a valid existing right in 1976?”