Rob Bishop

I think that we can and should do something about this, not just for our legacy parks, but the other units.

I think the National Park Service Legacy Act that Congressman Will Hurd has that is a bipartisan bill, one that I am a co-sponsor, that is a companion measure to the Warner bill on the Senate side, is the way to do it.

There is no question that decades of misplaced priorities in Congress and the executive have placed our Federal land management agencies in this position.

There has to be some kind of innovative and creative solution to actually solve the problem.

About a decade ago, we tried to just throw money at the situation, a big pile of money that went to the Interior Department, most of which was mismanaged, but it did not solve the problem.

We have problems. This Committee is hearing testimony because the Department of the Interior manages over 500 million acres of surface land.

The United States can play a huge role in working with our allies to stabilize, geopolitically, this world if we are smart on how we actually do it.

There are a whole lot of other people that benefit from that and maybe they should be asked to help support that at the same time.

We are going to work with you to see what we can do by April 4.

What we need to do is make sure that we give flexibility for access. Access has to be critical.

Sometimes we make a decision that if we are giving Homeland Security the ability of making these kinds of decisions on local communities, aren't we already doing that with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture?

That is where the east-west access becomes critical.

To do that, you need different kinds of access points, one at the border wall, one further up there, further up again.

The Committee's legislation will finally take the handcuffs off the agents and allow us to simply do our jobs.

I would like to commend the Subcommittee, Chairman Bishop, and Congressman Johnson, for your work in crafting reform language that has been included in H.R. 4760, Securing America's Future Act.

I would like to close by urging Congress to consider and pass legislation that would solve these very real problems.

This effort will be both time-consuming and challenging--but it's worth it.

The benefits of land conservation and multiple-use are well-known and obvious.

We have a unique window of opportunity to end the gridlock.

I reject this either-or proposition. Conservation and multiple-use can coexist.

Thank you for being here, especially President Begaye.

There is a net benefit that comes here. The Bears Ears Commission in which the tribes can appoint members still exists in his bill.

Is there anything in that proclamation that required the BLM to acknowledge and actually follow their advice?

I appreciate the witnesses for traveling from all over the place, from Arizona, from New Mexico, from Colorado, and from Utah, for actually being here so we can talk about this.

Key bottom line is there will still be a commission appointed by the tribes, there still will be a council that actually has some real ability to do something.