Jeff Bingaman: “Senate bill 1459 deals with BLM land and Forest Service land. Let me just say generally what I believe it does in regard…”

“Senate bill 1459 deals with BLM land and Forest Service land. Let me just say generally what I believe it does in regard to each of those. On BLM land, it repeals all the existing regulations the Department of the Interior has in place with regard to grazing on BLM land. It would also put in statutory form a significant amount of the policy that has previously been handled by regulation in the Department of the Interior with regard to BLM land, grazing on BLM land. Then it states that with regard to any subject that is not covered by this new statute, Senate bill 1459, it would reinstate the old regulations which were developed during James Watts' administration in the early 1980's and which have been in place since that time. So that is what it does on BLM land. On Forest Service land, it changes the statutory law that the Forest Service has operated under for grazing in our national forests for at least 60 years.”