Martin Heinrich: “my colleague from Utah purports to speak for westerners. I want to make it clear, he doesn't speak for New Mexico, he…”

“my colleague from Utah purports to speak for westerners. I want to make it clear, he doesn't speak for New Mexico, he doesn't speak for me, he doesn't speak for my constituents, and he certainly doesn't speak for the businesses that write letters to me speaking about how the Land and Water Conservation Fund has benefited their businesses--particularly businesses that rely on tourism and outdoor recreation, that rely on places like the Valles Caldera National Preserve, that rely on places like the Rio Grande National Monument for their livelihood. The reason why, as westerners, I can take my kids out and go hunting on public land and the reason we can go camping and cut firewood to heat our homes is because of the public land the Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided in places like New Mexico. We had a hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. If anything, what we heard is that we didn't need to reform this program; that, frankly, it was working better than just about any program in the Federal Government. LWCF works. It has broad bipartisan support. It creates recreation jobs that are key to Western States. LWCF buys from willing sellers in places that oftentimes reduce how much we spend on maintaining, protecting, and managing our Federal lands. Imagine in-holdings that make it harder for our foresters to manage wildfires and to protect and do the work. We need to do a better job of managing wildfires across the West.…”