On the recordDecember 9, 2015
This is one of those situations where this is an issue that has been festering for 6 years now. If the Bureau of Land Management truly wanted to solve this issue, if they truly wanted to make amends, if they truly wanted to give certainty to these people, it could have happened by now. But up the food chain they have refused to do it. That is why it is incumbent upon us to do the right thing. We are talking about people whose property, whose homes, their future, their livelihoods, are being threatened by a government bureaucracy that simply says they don't care. They would rather have control than solve a problem. The bill before you actually sets out a way of doing the survey in the right way, the way the Supreme Court said it should be done, doing it the right way the first time and ensuring that everyone will be part of the table. It sets out a process to actually solve this problem in a minimum amount of time. This is the right thing to do. We should go forward with that. I appreciate those who have spoken on this particular issue because there are people whose lives are being threatened right now because of the uncertainty about what their property rights are and where they will not be, and that is wrong. That is simply wrong. What has happened to these people is wrong. If we allow it to go forward by our inability of trying to make decisions here, we are wrong, too.…
