On the recordFebruary 14, 2017
I am grateful to the chairman of our committee. I appreciate the question asked by my colleague across the aisle: Why now? The answer to the question, why now, is that this Federal Government has not done its job. This Congress has not done its job in complying with the aspirations of the Constitution. When you have disagreement between documents, as we did between the Louisiana Purchase on the south border of the Red River, and Oklahoma going to the middle of the Red River--and, of course, the Red River changes as time goes on--then the Federal Government should have long since stepped in and said: Here is the land we are talking about. Here is where the borders will actually go. I am amazed at times, we talk in terms of agencies, of bureaus, of departments, as if they are some independent country that deserves a place at the United Nations making policies and making executive decisions all their own. These people work for us. The Bureau of Land Management does have some folks that don't understand that. They think they are an entity unto themselves, and they make policy. Well, that is not what the Constitution set up. In fact, the Constitution, in the preamble, as my friends know, says: ``We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility. . . .'' This is what this bill is trying to do.…
