Rob Bishop: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 356 is called the Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 356 is called the Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy Development Act, and it's to promote economic development within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and to increase funding for public education within the State of Utah, as well as to protect some culturally and environmentally sensitive lands that are within that particular reservation. This is a bipartisan bill. It's supported by the entire Utah congressional delegation, the oil and gas industry, the Ute Tribe, the Wilderness Society. Actually, everybody with an IQ over 7 is in support of it. It's a noncontroversial measure that will authorize the Secretary of the Interior to resolve a decades-old land tenure issue in a manner that's supported by all parties. In 1948, Congress extended the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, surrounding about 18,000 acres of school trust lands and mineral leases that were within that portion. In 1955, Congress attempted to solve the dispute amongst some of these lands, and actually failed in doing so. So the Ute Tribe has long protected the southern portion of this Hill Creek area for cultural and environmental reasons. It's also in an area that's known as the Book Cliffs, which is one of the most remote and rugged places within the State of Utah.…”