Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), one of the ranking members on the committee, who has spent a lot of time on our committee and understands these issues. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I represent the Sierra Nevada of California. Yosemite Valley, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, and Lake Tahoe are all within my district. The Yosemite Land Grant Act signed by President Lincoln in 1864 was the first time the Federal Government set aside land for ``public use, resort, and recreation . . . for all time.'' Today, the Federal estate has grown to 640 million acres. That is 28 percent of the land area of our Nation. While the Federal Government owns just seven-tenths of 1 percent of New York State and 1.8 percent of Texas, it owns 46 percent of my home State of California and 93 percent of Alpine County in my district. Now, we in the Sierra revere our public lands, and we are proud to share them with the world. But the Federal Government now holds far more land than it can take care of. The Federal lands now face a $20 billion backlog of deferred maintenance, which makes tourism less desirable. Now, this is all land that is off the local tax rolls, denying our local governments vital revenues.…”