Tom Udall: “we support passage of S. 156, the Ojito Wilderness Act. This bill designates the Ojito Wilderness Study Area, an area…”

“we support passage of S. 156, the Ojito Wilderness Act. This bill designates the Ojito Wilderness Study Area, an area totaling approximately 11,000 acres, as a permanent wilderness to be protected pursuant to the 1964 Wilderness Act. The bill also provides for the purchase and transfer of adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands to the Pueblo of Zia. These lands, totaling approximately 13,000 acres, are contiguous to the current boundaries of the Pueblo. This area will be taken into trust and held for the benefit of the Pueblo by the Secretary of the Interior, and will be managed in perpetuity by the Pueblo as wilderness. As the lead co-sponsor in the House, I would like to take this opportunity to greatly acknowledge my colleague from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) and fellow co-sponsor. I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo) and the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall), the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Resources, for bringing the Ojito Wilderness Act to the floor. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is the result of good-faith collaboration and cooperation among many people in New Mexico and among many of us here in the United States Congress. This is truly a compromise bill. I encourage my colleagues to support it.…”