I have asked that we file a complaint against OPEC for illegal commodity manipulation under the WTO.

We can sit here and pretend that if we let out some more leases that somehow this is going to help.

The Bush Administration, the Clinton Administration, and now the Obama Administration, the Special Trade Representative will not take on OPEC.

I mean, that is just supply and demand; no speculation involved, no manipulation involved, nothing.

I am proud to say that the State of Pennsylvania has been doing that on the Keystone line, and it has been very successful.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

This is not the time for us to be able to stop Secure Rural Schools. I believe that there has never been a greater need with our counties than right now with the challenges that they face.

I am all for dispensing with unnecessary bureaucracy but still will have concerns here.

I opposed it at the time. I was right. I said, it is not going to resolve the issues. It is going to lead to gridlock. It did.

So you can tell me that, should we approve this, you fully expect it will bring efficiencies that will get more money on the ground, more jobs created, more work done toward those goals.

How about a public meeting where the three agencies could discuss where they believe this is going? Again, I am having tremendous confusion on both sides of this debate, and this is a very polarizing issue.

I want to thank you for the individual attention that you have put into trying to help break that deadlock

So we could productively, with community and state support and tremendous consensus, spend these funds for their lawfully authorized purpose if we stopped using them as a phony budget offset, and that is what you are proposing this year.

I think these pilot projects for the first time in four administrations hold some promise of giving us a path forward.

If you want to put it into a historical context, in 1999 the House of Representatives actually passed what would have been a $3.2 billion package that essentially would have funded most of the components of Land and Water Conservation Fund.

if we break this gridlock there will be revenue for the government, revenue for my counties, there will be jobs, we will have healthier forests.

it is a broken promise.

And as I understand it, there is a major barrier that States don't want to waive sovereign immunity.

I think we've got a good framework from this. We'll look forward to Mr. Kempton's report as being instructive.

But I think we need to perhaps elevate that issue higher or look at whether the exception process is the right way to go.

Well, we'd love to be on the early distribution list so that we can incorporate some of the ideas into our reauthorization working with the chairman because we need to address this situation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think it's important to put an emphasis on looking at lower cost, more appropriate alternatives, that doesn't require you to take an exception or not be part of an experimental program.

Well, not under existing law. There are five States eligible under the pilots, but I'm saying if we made it a part of permanent law that States could request that authority, you would not object to that.

I am fully willing to accept the equivalence of CEQA, because in many cases it seems to exceed NEPA.