Rob Bishop

Management of the forests and forest fires is an important and significant topic, but it is not the issue that we are having here today. Climate change is an important significant topic, but it is not the issue that we are talking about…

Mismanagement, as I view it, of Federal lands did not start recently. It has gone on for several decades, long before the Obama administration was there.

Congress and the executive branch working in concert is the only way for us to overcome years of mismanagement at the Interior Department.

Although mismanagement of our Federal lands and Washington's neglect of local, state and tribal communities began long before the Obama administration, the layers of arbitrary rules and regulations promulgated over the past 8 years have…

Your Department has brought more transparency and accountability to National Monument designations in the past few months than the rest of the Antiquities Act's 111-year history.

I want particularly to single out the work of our colleague and resident forester, Mr. Westerman of Arkansas, for his work in advancing reforms in this bill.

We are very grateful, Representative LaHood and Chairman Gosar, for your continued leadership on this issue.

This draft is a significant step in the right direction.

I want that engraved, 'esteemed,' in the future here.

The Marine Corps has been evaluating Australian technology through the Foreign Comparative Testing Program for Rifle Accessory Control Units (RACUs)...

So that, in essence, they did not want to do what the law told them to do, because it did not meet their handbook policies.

What we had in the last administration did not necessarily facilitate that.

I also have this feeling that the Department of the Interior is going to be dealt with much differently as we go forward.

Consultation is required of local governments. But what we have found out over and over again is consultation is not taking place.

So, in the decision, in the monument declaration that President Obama did, even though he said they were giving them management, there is no real management.

The burdens outweigh the benefits, largely due to the enormous size of these monuments.

Will one more national monument help that county prosper? Absolutely not.

Grassroots Utah Navajo people do not support this effort to convert our sacred lands into a Federal designation.

I am convinced that in both cases politics was a greater factor than was protection of antiquities.

My kid was down there. He met them, as well. They were promised a free road trip to Utah, they took it, they had no idea what Bears Ears was.

Never in my years of Congress have I seen such a concerted effort to suppress the voices of local tribes by powerful, deep-pocketed opponents.

In 2015, Garfield County declared a state of emergency, due in large part to the Federal land management practices.

Let's go to San Juan County, then. It has one national monument, one national forest, one national recreation center, three national monuments. Despite that, it is still the poorest county in the state of Utah.

What does the creation of a national monument on these lands do to people's lives and culture?

Traditional Utah Navajo people are not conspiring with lawyers in boardrooms in Salt Lake and San Francisco.