Rob Bishop: “You know, we do processes here in government, and hopefully we do them for a reason. But when the process we have harms…”

“You know, we do processes here in government, and hopefully we do them for a reason. But when the process we have harms kids, we should ask ourselves why do we have this slavish devotion to the process. The problem before the State of Minnesota today is simply Federal action that took place 34 years ago that took lands guaranteed and devoted to the kids of Minnesota and took them away by Federal action. I live in a State that does have a State trust lands policy where the use of that school makes a significant contribution to the education of our kids. It wasn't always that way. We took it seriously. The State of Minnesota now wants to take this process seriously and develop resources that would be beneficial for their kids in a significant way and equalize the process, as we do in my home State, to benefit all the kids that are in public education. This is one of those situations in which we have had plenty of time to solve this problem but obviously the Federal Government has not moved forward to give to the State of Minnesota what will benefit their kids. In the hearing we had on this particular bill, the Forest Service said, Yeah, we can do this process. Give us about 4 years to evaluate all of these lands. Our Constitution gives us a right to a speedy trial. I wish it gave us a right to speedy decisions by bureaucrats.…”