Doc Hastings: “Mr. Speaker, the bill that this rule allows to be taken up is a very significant piece of legislation, and I just want…”

“Mr. Speaker, the bill that this rule allows to be taken up is a very significant piece of legislation, and I just want to make one point that I do not think has been made in the debate on this rule regarding this underlying legislation, and that is that this legislation is geared towards what we call multiple use areas within our national system, our national forests and our BLM lands. Multiple use by definition means it should be open for recreation, commercial activity, and so forth. But, unfortunately, with policies that have been enacted de facto in the past 10 or 15 years, in fact, we have closed up these multiple use areas. This legislation addresses these problems that have built up for a time and as a result has built up to unhealthy forests and unhealthy BLM lands. So it is a significant first start, an extremely significant first start. With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and support the underlying legislation.”