Mike Lee

Many of the promises the Obama Administration has made to the Bears Ears Coalition may well be sincere but history, in my opinion, suggests that many of those promises are likely to prove hollow just based on our track record.

A unilateral monument designation will divide the people, not only here in Utah, but elsewhere.

I think it's the best way to bring consensus and bring good will out of the end product.

I believe that states have a significant role to solve problems of most of the issues that we talk about today.

These supposed protections, supposed protections that are often invoked by people who are wanting to promote the idea of a national monument, quickly deteriorate.

The process involved with the PLI is, in fact, the right way.

Taking care of ancestral land, protecting and preserving it for the next generation, is not optional for many Native Americans.

There is no law, there is no judicial precedent that guarantees that Native Americans will have continued access to or use of their sacred sites on this land, if that land is, in fact, designated as a national monument.

If you really care about the land this is not some kind of a political tomahawk to be used.

We still have animus anger and distrust for the Federal Government because of that lack of process and having something done to us that we have evidence of visceral anger still today because of that process.

One of the biggest lessons, I think, we've learned over time is that local input is critical to getting success and to get buy in to whatever the solution is to the problem at hand.

But the good news is that there is a better way, and it is called the Public Lands Initiative (PLI) which is a piece of legislation that has been written to achieve what a monument designation cannot.

Requiring U.S. companies to provide access to government agencies would not prevent foreign app developers from creating encryption software for jailbreak phones.

I believe it's an issue that Congress and the executive branch have to approach with a great deal of prudence.

I also appreciate your commitment to protecting the rights that we hold dear as Americans, and our security.

The pendulum of tolerance must swing both ways.

Detractors will have you believe that the First Amendment Defense Act would allow hospitals to refuse care to a same-sex couple or turn away a single pregnant mother.

All Americans should be free to believe and act in the public square based on their beliefs about marriage without fear of government penalty.

Our bill does not take away anybody's rights, to answer Mr. Cummings' question.

It has never been our intention to give anyone a so-called license to discriminate.

We can get into the fact that he accused my best friend's father of conspiring to kill JFK.

I am worried though. I am worried that Utah's federal partners have been showing a pronounced propensity to ignore suggestions made by the state.

I am proud to have the chance to introduce someone who has been at the center of that, Kathleen Clarke.

This is an issue that is very important to me and to my state. BLM manages nearly 23,000,000 acres of public lands in Utah.

The proposed rule threatens to circumvent BLM's own field managers and state directors at later stages of the planning process.