On the recordJune 20, 2012
I offer this amendment to repeal the Forest Legacy Program. This is a program designed to protect lands in the United States. It is important to remember that the Federal Government is already a massive landowner. It has abundant programs already in place to conserve that land, to protect it. The Federal Government owns about two-thirds of the land in my own State. It owns nearly 30 percent of the land mass within the territorial boundaries of the United States. We do a lot to conserve that land. But when we use this money-- money estimated to amount to about $200 million a year in authorization, about $1 billion over a 5-year period--we are using that money to take land out of use. We are using that money to pay people not to use their land for anything. Whenever we look for areas in which we can save money, one area is to not pay people not to use their land. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Who yields time in opposition? The Senator from Vermont.
