Maurice Hinchey: “I want to make it perfectly understandable and plain that that is not true. There is a negotiation going on now between…”

“I want to make it perfectly understandable and plain that that is not true. There is a negotiation going on now between the Chugach Corporation and the Forest Service. The memorandum of understanding upon which they have entered into requires an agreement by the 11th of December. What this rider would do is override that process and it would establish this access by fiat, disregarding the laws established by this Congress on numerous occasions. That is precisely what this would do. It has been suggested that this has been an interminable process, beginning back in 1982, and it has been obstructed, it has been suggested, by the Forest Service on more than one occasion. Again let me say that is not so. What has happened in the process of these negotiations is simply this. The leadership of the corporation has changed hands on several occasions. The direction of the corporation has changed on several occasions. It is only recently that they have come back to the table, wanting to conclude the negotiations, and those negotiations are going forward and they will conclude in an orderly, respectful fashion by the end of this year, given their own head. What this rider does is interrupt that.”