Bill Lee: “reserving the right to object. I wish to point out the Federal Government currently owns over 600 million acres of land…”

“reserving the right to object. I wish to point out the Federal Government currently owns over 600 million acres of land throughout the United States. In the opinion of many Americans, that is way too much. Some of my colleagues are pushing a piece of legislation that would reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund--or LWCF--a program that is primarily used for land acquisition, and they want to do this without making a single reform to that same program. Before taking such a drastic and I believe misguided step, I would ask my colleagues to examine the Federal Government's current landholdings and in particular evaluate the manner in which they are being maintained. In many Western States, the largest landholder is the Federal Government. In my home State of Utah, the Federal Government owns close to 70 percent of the land within the State. This reality is hard for a lot of my colleagues from States east of the Mississippi River to even comprehend. Imagine if the Federal Government could tell your constituents where they could live, recreate, hunt and fish, and how they could earn a living. Imagine that the Federal Government used its vast landholdings to block developments of the valuable natural resources. Imagine further that the Land and Water Conservation Fund was used to acquire privately held lands from your constituents. Given how much land the Federal Government owns, it is not surprising to find out that much of it is rather poorly maintained.…”