Haley Stevens: “I want to remind the Senate now, and I will do so later just prior to the vote, in this year's Interior appropriations…”

“I want to remind the Senate now, and I will do so later just prior to the vote, in this year's Interior appropriations bill, signed by the President last fall, after serious negotiation with the administration, conducted by the previous chairman of this Appropriations Committee, at my request this section was put in that bill, section 108: No final rule or regulation of any agency of the Federal Government pertaining to the recognition, management or validity of a right-of-way, pursuant to Revised Statute 2477, 43 U.S. Code 932, shall take effect unless expressly authorized by an act of Congress subsequent to the date of enactment of this act. Now, that was the compromise last year as we began this fiscal year. We believe it is an emergency when we return to Washington to find that the Secretary of the Interior has issued a policy, a statement, edict, fiat, whatever you want to call it, but he has in effect changed the law, in his opinion, purported to change the law in a way that he believes is not covered by that very strong statement: No final rule or regulation of any agency of the Federal Government pertaining to the recognition, management or validity of a right-of-way, pursuant to Revised Statute 2477. . . shall take effect unless expressly authorized by an act of Congress subsequent to the date of enactment of this act. That is this Congress.…”