Bill Johnson

I must say that I am highly disappointed with OSM and the way that they have treated the States in this rulemaking process.

That seems the way that your Administration, your Department wants to work. You want to do these things in the blind, keep America in the dark, and expect nobody to notice until it is too late.

I am very concerned that we do it in a responsible way that incentivizes America's exceptionalism, not putting strangleholds.

We have an opportunity now to start to stop urban sprawl and to keep this part of Florida from going the way of many of the other parts of our state.

If this refuge satisfies a strategic interest then I think we should do it and make the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission do it correctly.

It breaks my heart when I see these parts of Florida developed.

As a reasonable person, I find it incredible that the Secretary of Interior would announce earlier this year that the Final Environmental Impact Statement would have the full withdrawal area as the preferred alternative, before the final…

The proponents of the Arizona Strip withdrawal talk of stopping uranium mining in the Grand Canyon. This is a convenient, self serving distortion of the truth.

Rather than respect a longstanding and carefully crafted compromise agreed to by all parties, the current Administration would rather march forward with their goal of locking up even more federal lands to responsible, authorized multiple…

The only thing driving away our constituency is lack of jobs, sir.

I am not aware that Secretary Salazar has ever set foot on our land, so it must have come as a vision.

We were told at one of our meetings of the Arizona-Utah Coalition by Scott Florence--he is the Arizona Strip district manager--that the regular resource planning process basically wasn't followed.

Well, that is not what the law says. That is not what the law says.

I am confused because not more than a few minutes ago you testified on behalf of the Secretary that you would deny placing a commemorative on the World War II memorial because there is existing law that prohibits that.

But to do that requires congressional approval because there are existing laws on the books, right?

In laying forth this plan, he is acting as a rogue representative of bureaucratic government--operating against the will of Congress, directions from the President, and in violation of federal law.

I am actually quite terrified that we would mix mining with natural erosion.

How do you justify violating the 1970s law that superseded the 1950s law that said that these two agencies can't be merged?

You pick and choose which laws we comply with and which ones we don't?

OK. So it is not a proposal. The Secretary has decided to merge these two agencies, correct?

The Secretary of Interior, Kenneth Salazar plans to deprive the people of this nation of 42 percent of all domestic source of uranium critical to the national defense.

The withdrawal is a reckless policy, and responsibility for it rests with Ranking Member Grijalva and his co-conspirators, the Department of the Interior.

The mining that is going to be brought into Mohave County and southern Utah means over 1,000 jobs and $29 billion to our economy.

Mohave County, while it benefits somewhat from this activity, would starve if it were dependent upon the tourism as a primary source of income.

Our unemployment rate is currently 11 percent. My brothers in the Navajo Nation are at a staggering 52 percent.