Ben Ray Luján

I look forward to working with the citizens of Dona Ana County, Congress and the president to permanently protect the nationally significant lands, heritage, and history within the proposed Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.

Because there were not a lot of folks that came to the Committee hearing today, is it possible to get another round of questions?

given the--we have heard a little bit about SBIR today. We don't talk much about STTR, a program that has been terribly neglected by the Federal Government

Does everyone here--is there anyone that would disagree with the statement that the future of the economy in the United States can be strengthened through more robust investments and collaboration with the Federal Government, universities…

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your graciousness in the recognition of more time.

I was a bit disappointed when reading through the charter and through the testimony that was filed with us, that I didn't see any mention of fuel production from algae.

the reality is that I have ranchers back in New Mexico that have sold off entire herds because there is less water

I think all we are asking here, Mr. Chairman, is what can we do to do things smarter, and how can we do these collectively with taking the rhetoric out.

If there was a cyber attack that was issued on any one of us anywhere in the country, I am terrified of what would happen, and what that could do to destroy commerce in America.

We ought to be investing like crazy.

we are just losing electrons because of old infrastructure. There has to be a smarter way to do it.

So the letter that I handed to the Chairman was the one that I cited earlier from April 20, Mr. Chairman.

80 percent of convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan are for fuel and it is estimated that 46 convoys resulted in a casualty.

There is a piece of legislation that would actually encourage natural gas use in 18-wheelers.

All things being equal, if the United States increases its supply, will fuel prices at the pump go down for the American people?

A lot of conversations about who is to blame for high gas prices, anyone that truly believes that President Obama or Secretary Chu or Speaker Boehner or Congressman Lujan wants higher fuel prices for the American people, it is not true.

So do you support keeping increased production in the United States and not exporting it?

If we are going to increase production, American people are hitting $4 a gallon, some places higher.

I am saying if we are going to increase production in the United States, shouldn't we keep it in the United States to be able to help the American consumer and American businesses?

I am a strong advocate of efforts that encourage private sector job growth.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

My legislation... simply assigns these islands the official title of the Maine Coastal Islands Wilderness Area.

But Mr. Chairman, one of the technical amendments that we are looking at, and I think this is something that Mr. Labrador may be able to find some support for as we get a chance to talk about grazing as well, is making sure that the…

I would like to thank Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member Grijalva for bringing this bill before the Subcommittee.

While I appreciate the intent of my fellow Congressman, Mr. Labrador, his bill is a good beginning to a conversation on how to address the backlog of grazing permit renewals.