Political Quotes

“This amendment would prohibit the Department of the Interior from using appropriated funds for any purpose having to do with establishing, under the Antiquities Act, a national monument in Malheur County, Oregon. Malheur County is part of my congressional district, and it is huge, almost 10,000 square miles in size. As you can see from this picture to my right, this county is 145 times the size of Washington, D.C. It is sparsely populated, but the people who live and work there understand the value and importance of protecting the land. Why? Because many are second, third, and fourth generations who have spent their lives earning a living in the most challenging of arid locations, knowing from hard experience that the only way to survive is to live in harmony with the land. Back in 2015, a small group of mostly urban activists funded by recreational sportswear companies tried to convince the Obama administration that it should use the Antiquities Act to abruptly impose a national monument designation on 2.5 million acres of the 6.3 million acres making up Malheur County. That is about 40 percent of the county's entire area. This picture beside me shows the typical type of land that makes up this 2.5 million acres. Almost 200 miles of the canyon seen cutting through the sagebrush flats in this picture are already protected with scenic river designations. We don't need a monument stacked on top of those designations.…”