Mike Lee

It seems to me that there are so many minerals on the list, not just beryllium but including beryllium, that happen to be found disproportionately in rural areas of the country.

A fair and stable permitting process is all the mining industry really asks for.

we are swiftly approaching a point where the word 'digital' will be an unnecessary adjective for trade.

if you have got a cost for the government that is relatively low and if it is accurate to say that some huge swath of U.S. Government-owned spectrum--say 60 percent--is allocated to a U.S. Government agency, that is a recipe for a certain…

Federal agencies pay a pretty small fee for their use of spectrum. Is that right?

As you are aware, there are a lot of opportunities for innovation in our economy that relate to the allocation of spectrum.

They pay a fee, and one could argue that it is smaller than what they would pay if they were, say, a private, for-profit business enterprise.

Congress, it seems to me, as the lawmaking organ of the Federal Government has a responsibility to make sure that these resources are managed effectively.

To avoid clarity, I think that is a good description, to avoid clarity in a place where morality, decency, and justice would seem to demand clarity and where the Constitution provides clarity.

Which is of concern to many of us here and ought to be more so than it is within Congress.

The restrictions, the inability to develop land locally, be it from a Federal restriction, a State restriction, or a local restriction, is a chief barrier, in many instances, to people finding meaningful work and opportunity.

What I am saying is, in land that is held by the Federal Government and isn't being put to use currently, that is an opportunity for Congress to look and say, can it be put to better or different use.

What about Congress? Do you think there are things Congress could do to impact at least the Federal role, the role the Federal Government might have in public land states, for example?

Are there policies we could pursue, through legislation or otherwise, that would help alleviate this burden?

I appreciated what you said earlier about the overcriminalization issue and noting that although that is not the precise focus of this hearing, it is closely related to the overcriminalization problem.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese and I have urged Congress to adopt a mistake of law defense...

I think to that extent in those instances BLM law enforcement agents are failing to do their job appropriately.

So it should not be the presumption that when somebody has done something wrong that the only solution, every time, is always just do criminal action.

Given that profile of activity why are armed BLM law enforcement agents wearing flak jackets, no less, executing search warrants in the private homes of artifact collectors?

It will be of little avail to the American people if their laws are written by those of their own choosing, if those laws are so voluminous and complex if they can't reasonably be read and understood.

We feel like we can do better as a state in managing our law enforcement affairs than the Federal Government.

Yet nothing in federal law precludes them from using local law enforcement and in some ways it encourages it.

it's a shame when our entire profession is disparaged on the basis of only eight or nine hundred thousand bad apples.

And to the extent it can achieve that, it saves the taxpayer money.

That would not be Armageddon. It would not produce an Armageddon type environment. Dogs and cats living together in the streets.