Harry Reid: “last evening we talked about the price of gold based upon a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year. Let me advise…”

“last evening we talked about the price of gold based upon a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year. Let me advise all my friends here in the U.S. Senate that last Friday gold hit a 4-year low, $336 an ounce, which basically means companies are laying people off and some companies are going out of business. That is a fact. Mr. President, as I stated last night, this amendment is an ill-conceived and ill-advised attempt to circumvent congressional efforts to reform the current mining law. The U.S. mining industry is in agreement that the mining law is due for some changes. Serious efforts to accomplish such a result have taken place over the last several years. In 1990 and 1991, efforts were made here to have a patent moratorium. That failed. Following that, though, Senators Domenici and Reid offered an alternative to a patent moratorium. We required payment of fair market value for the surface of the land. We said any land that was patented that was not used for mining purposes would revert to the Federal Government. We also required compliance with state reclamation laws. This was in an amendment offered here that passed this body by a vote of 52 to 44. It went to the House, and they knew their argument that they use here every day, about the patents being offered for nothing, would be taken away. They rejected this good-faith effort of the U.S. Senate to reform the mining law. It was rejected in conference.”