Steve Pearce: “I observe that we are hearing the same tired excuse that nothing in this underlying bill affects this. Yet I would…”

“I observe that we are hearing the same tired excuse that nothing in this underlying bill affects this. Yet I would simply point out to the ranchers of this land that now, under the majority, you don't rate as high as the sportsmen. You don't rate as high as those people who are concerned about border security, because we were told that same tired language that nothing in the bill affected them, but the majority's been willing to adapt the language here because they know that the underlying bill affects it. But they are not going to make one amendment in order that would protect our ranchers and protect and make sure that this language doesn't affect them. It is really unusual that we're hearing such a diverse opinion from the sponsor of this bill right now. It says that nothing affects it. And then he reads all sorts of language in, and again for those people who are watching and listening, I would simply say again, read the very simple language: 'Specifically, inclusion in the National Landscape Conservation System shall not affect the current grazing rights or operations.' And yet we've built all of these potentials that we have created for this language that we are, in fact, rewriting the entire way that grazing is done. Grazing is always done by cows walking out and munching on the grass. And it's a very simple operation. I think that maybe our amendment is being overcharacterized. I appreciate the gentleman from Arizona and his overcharacterization.”