Rob Bishop

We need to thin the forests, and we can do so in a manner that is sustainable, responsible, protects wildlife habitat and watersheds, and puts people to work and supports local economies at the same time.

This painful status quo is simply unacceptable.

The status quo is simply not acceptable. We have to come up with a different way of doing what we are doing.

This is not anti-environment, it is simply a common-sense approach that is needed.

We can't control the weather, we can't control sparks that fly here and there, but what we can control are the fuel loads that are now doubling every 3 years on public lands.

Thank you, Mr. Gosar.

The Senate is an unintended consequence, yes.

That is another good reason why never to trust anything that comes out of the Senate.

It is about time to look at this phenomenon of the role the courts play in coming up with policy toward our lands.

The idea that the court should be a driver of policy that deals with our public lands is really a fairly recent paradigm shift.

If Yosemite doesn't want you, come up to Utah.

So if we were just to declare Sacramento as a wilderness area, wouldn't that help a lot of us?

The NPS failed to make repairs using that money, and I am told that it was spent on other things and there was no money left.

Why don't we--I will let you think about that one.

I have a piece of legislation that I am going to plug unashamedly. It would add 1,600 acres to the park, as originally envisioned by John Muir.

I think it is important to maintain biking activity, horse riding activity. Ice skating in the winter in the outdoors is one of the unique experiences of Yosemite National Park.

How on earth can renting a raft harm the Merced River? Why are we protecting these rivers for if they cannot be enjoyed by the Americans that are paying for their protection?

I'm concerned that the direction the Park Service has taken with the Merced River Plan unnecessarily punishes visitors through measures designed to move Yosemite Valley to the direction of a wilderness area.

Sometimes I think Yosemite would be better off in the State of California, because it was a State park before we took it over full-time, anyway.

I appreciate the opportunity of being part of a debate that covered a smorgasbord of ideas. Let me just respond to several of those that have been presented in the last lead-up to the vote on this particular amendment. As I said before…

It is wonderful to realize how the GAO's and the OMB's facts are not inaccurate and also how rules that were waived for this bill have been waived for the same reason in prior pieces of legislation. With that, Mr. Speaker, I continue to…

I appreciate the comments that were just made by the gentleman from Massachusetts about a program which does fund $6.7 billion in the WIC program and was passed unanimously by voice vote from both parties in the Appropriations Committee…

I am happy to yield 4 minutes to the author of one of the bills in here, as well as the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings).

This resolution provides for a structured rule for the consideration of H.R. 2231, the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act of 2013, as well as H.R. 1613, the Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act, and…

For the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to our good friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), who I certainly hope is feeling better than the way he's walking today, pending which I yield myself such time…