Thank you for testifying before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training at the hearing entitled, 'Keeping College within Reach: The Role of Federal Student Aid Programs.'

The excessive size of many National Monuments is an issue because the agencies that manage them frequently act to restrict access to the land for recreational use, energy development, grazing, and other purposes.

It is time for this practice to stop.

Thank you again for your important contribution to the work of the committee.

I am not yet ready to say that we have solved the problem of higher education access for students from lower-income families in this country.

I am very pleased to see that the President seems to have embraced Republicans' proposal to shift the calculation of student loan interest rates away from Washington politicians and toward a market-based formula.

Congress must act to ensure consideration of the local impact of Presidential national monument designations.

Overly harsh restrictions on recreation or other land uses can have a severe negative economic impact on States and localities that rely on those activities.

A Western Governors Association study shows that motorized recreation provided over $250 billion in economic impact in 2011.

The excessive size of many national monuments is an issue because the agencies that manage them frequently restrict access to the land for recreational use, energy development, grazing, and other purposes.

Originally intended for the preservation of often-vandalized archeological sites, the Antiquities Act of 1906 granted the President unilateral authority to proclaim national monuments on Federal lands.