Ted Poe: “This amendment takes $1 million out of the Forest Service land acquisition account and then, for technical reasons…”

“This amendment takes $1 million out of the Forest Service land acquisition account and then, for technical reasons, inserts it back into the same account with the intent to identify unused land for potential sale. The United States Federal Government currently owns around 640 million acres of land. That is just a number. But that is 27 percent of the landmass in the United States, owned by Uncle Sam. That is the same size as all of Western Europe, if you can imagine that, that being 27 percent of the United States landmass. The Forest Service alone owns over 230 million acres of this Federal land. This amendment is very simple. All it does is to have the Federal Government examine the land that it has in its possession for the potential sale back to Americans so that Americans can own America. We are not talking about National Forests. We are not talking about the Grand Canyon. We are talking about unused land that is owned by the Federal Government. It will have the Federal Government go through that land--27 percent of the landmass in the country--and decide whether some of that might actually be better to be in the possession and the property of Americans so that, if Americans then own the land, that land in some State--like Utah--can then be developed by Americans, and then those people can pay taxes on the land that would go to the State of Utah, for example. Right now the land is unused. It is not able to be productive.…”