David Thomas: “there are a couple of things I think are important here. One is the predication of this idea. This amendment is based on…”

“there are a couple of things I think are important here. One is the predication of this idea. This amendment is based on the idea that there is a subsidy here. Yesterday I reported on the Pepperdine University study, an unbiased study that indicates very clearly this is not a subsidy. If you come from this area, where we have 8 inches of rain instead of 40, you will find that this is not a subsidy and Pepperdine University says that Montana ranchers--this was in Montana--who rely on Federal lands do not have a competitive advantage over those who do not. Second, it seems to me we enter here into a great deal of class warfare which I think is unnecessary. Yesterday, the Rock Springs Grazing Association was mentioned as one of these corporate robbers. Let me tell you what the Rock Springs Grazing Association is. It was started in 1909 in southwestern Wyoming to stop overgrazing which was taking place in the Red Desert, which, by the way, is the largest grazing district in the whole BLM in this country. The association breaks down roughly this way: 550,000 deeded acres are in here. This is what is called the checkerboard; 450,000 are leased from private and 900,000 are Federal permits in the checkerboard. They are all intermixed. There is no fencing. You cannot use one from the other. There are 11,000 there. What is the association? It is 64 shareholders, 64 family ranchers, that is who it is. It is not a corporation. It is 64 family ranchers that use that.”