Rob Bishop

Thank you very much. I am now going to ask Mr. John Tahsuda to stand, if you would, please.

H.R. 4532 is a sensible and responsible answer to that question. Congress should pass it with all deliberate speed.

Despite that unprecedented responsiveness, neither the Eagles and Patriots nor the teams in San Juan County can participate willy nilly.

This bill establishes something unique in U.S. history: monument management councils that give all the teams a voice in land management.

This thoughtful legislation would give it to them by codifying what we all want: appropriate monument protections and a cooperative framework to ensure that those appropriate designations are managed responsibly for the public's benefit.

Any assertion that this bill throws open public land to harmful development is akin to suggesting the Patriots get five downs to go 10 yards--an outright falsehood.

As I see it, the teams are the Federal, Utah, local, and tribal governments with interests in exercising careful stewardship over these stunning lands for all the public's benefit.

A lot more protection.

Thank you very much. I am going to mess up this name, as well. Once again, I will apologize in advance.

Chairman Bishop sharply questioned whether the Ute Indian Tribe and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition had a strong and ongoing relationship to the lands and resources contained within the Bears Ears National Monument.

I am pleased to announce that I am initiating a process to develop Federal legislation.

I believe Utah is ready to move away from the tired arguments of the past.

I believe we are in the midst of a paradigm shift.

This new legislative effort puts all of us in the best possible position to ensure the area is managed in a way that truly takes into account perspectives of national and local tribes, multiple stakeholders, and the interests of Utahans.

I believe the bill put forward by Congressman Curtis is fair, inclusive, and it is necessary.

What we are talking about is, how do we empower people who actually have a close tie, an ancestral tie, a family tie to be able to make real decisions, not mock decisions, but real decisions?

The Commission is a fraud. It is a sham. They get to advise, but the advice can easily be rejected.

Do you authorize money and manpower?

This idea that we did not have any of those discussions is one of the most bogus claims that happens to be there.

Clearly the administration can give tribes coordination. But we all know what that means. It means tribes can participate in all the meetings. It means tribes can listen to the discussion. It means tribes can even make recommendations. But…

One of the things I would like to also illustrate is we were criticized in written testimony of having no input or being allowed no process with it.

The people who came here from a distance and will return to a distance had to GPS the Bears Ears to get there.

The Bears Ears National Monument movement has been in the works for a long time. This was discussed long ago by conservation groups that wanted to protect the lands that we know and love. They were hesitant at first to get tribes involved…

If we do the legislative approach and we go forward, we can throw strikes, because home plate doesn't move.

I hope we can come together and work in good faith, recognizing that we all want these lands to remain public.