Bruce F. Vento: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Pombo amendment. What this amendment is all about is whether or not we are…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Pombo amendment. What this amendment is all about is whether or not we are going to have a national wilderness system or not, and whether or not it is going to apply to these lands in California, these substantial lands that are being designated both as wilderness and nonwilderness in this area. Mr. Chairman, clearly the Federal Government in this case stands in the place of the American public. They, in fact, represent the public ownership and the rights of the public in general to stewardship and to a legacy of natural heritage that exists in this Mojave Desert and other areas in this vast California desert area. The fact is that there apparently is a school of thought here that one cannot trust the Federal Government, one cannot trust the land managers; that the Federal Government cannot do anything right, and therefore, we are not satisfied with what rights a private individual may have with regard to the Constitution, we are satisfied with the rights that exist with the Wilderness Act that apply to all the other 49 States, and obviously there are differences. The question is, it is going to be the lowest common denominator.…”