David Thomas: “I guess I am a little surprised and, frankly, a little offended that it would be said that people on this side of the…”

“I guess I am a little surprised and, frankly, a little offended that it would be said that people on this side of the aisle are not as careful or do not care as much about public lands as someone else. I brought out this map I used yesterday. You can see where the Federal land holdings are in this country. Out in the West, nearly half of the land in most of our States belongs to the Federal Government, and we have taken care of it for years. I think the Senator's State of Illinois has about 2 percent. Here he is telling us how to manage public lands. I find that very difficult. We are very intent on being the stewards of public lands. I want to tell you a little bit about open space. There has been more and more interest in open space as people move out. We have discovered that the best way to keep it is to provide an opportunity for ranchers to continue to operate. That is how you keep open space. We are trying to do that now. We want fair compensation.”