David Thomas: “I do want to talk about how important it is that we have passage of this bill and I am pleased that, in the process of…”

“I do want to talk about how important it is that we have passage of this bill and I am pleased that, in the process of the discussion, it has been demonstrated that there is not a great deal of difference here. We have already talked about the fact that these fees do not amount to a great deal, in terms of money. But we are talking here, now, about trying to establish a long-term economy in our States. We are talking about stability in the area of grazing. We are talking about moving some of the decisions more close to the States and to the users. Of course this is public land. I understand that. That is why we are so careful and so clear in the Domenici bill, to say this is multiple use. There can be no question about that. This question of dominant use is simply not a valid observation. But we do need to begin to involve more closely, people who are in the area. For instance, Secretary Babbitt came out to the West all last year and the year before. We had these series of meetings. He talked to all these folks and, yet, came back with his proposal last year that was exactly the same as it was when it began. We need to involve, for instance, land-grant colleges in the development of the policy that is involved here. We need to involve State departments of agriculture. And we are there to do that. We need to make it a situation where communities can depend upon this economy.”