Bruce F. Vento: “The gentleman is aware, of course, there are literally millions of acres of BLM land that is not designated as…”

“The gentleman is aware, of course, there are literally millions of acres of BLM land that is not designated as wilderness or park in the measure that is before us. Immediately in this area, of course, there was a concern in terms of designating wilderness in some area, 100,000 acres. What we are doing in this instance with this amendment is keeping it not as a wilderness designation but as a study area. The concern, as the gentleman from California knows, is that the military, the Army and the Department of Defense, have not requested or asked us for withdrawal or sought a withdrawal of any other land as of this time. We do not know what the request will be, if there will be a request forthcoming. We are going the extra mile by obviously recognizing that this is in the planning stages at various points, and in this particular instance responding by not designating it, by treating it as wilderness study.”