Doc Hastings

I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to another gentleman from Arizona, somebody else who has been involved in this issue for some time, Mr. Franks.

I am pleased to yield 2\1/ 2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Quayle), who also has been very tenacious on this issue.

I am very pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar), the sponsor of this bill, somebody who has been absolutely tenacious in seeing that this legislation advances to where it is today.

I would like to introduce in the record a letter from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation which administered the $100 million Oil Rig Workers Assistance Fund over which Mr. Feinberg I believe has no control, no responsibility, no direct…

We always have a debate in this country on what the definition of a benevolent dictator is, and maybe this falls under that category.

So everything is relevant, but I must say it is problematic when one person is delegated this type of authority with limited oversight, so I share your concern, but I leave that to the policymakers.

When President Obama announced the appointment of Mr. Ken Feinberg as Administrator of the Compensation Fund, there was no doubt Mr. Feinberg had a difficult task ahead.

There is an appropriate effort in Congress to direct an open, transparent audit of the Fund.

I want to note it is not absolutely clear if the Fund is actually under the jurisdiction of this or any other Congressional Committee.

BP appears to have no responsibility further than simply writing a check.

The number is simply unacceptable to the people whose livelihood was disrupted by this disaster.

Quickly, fairly and transparently.

The President's Executive Order creates a new Federal bureaucracy that requires regional plans to be created whether States want it or not and in a manner that excludes stakeholders.

A law is necessary because, quite frankly, the Fish and Wildlife Service can't be trusted to ensure such access.

To ensure that public access is allowed to the summit of Rattlesnake Mountain, including motorized access.

Let me be very clear about the goal of this bill. It is to ensure that public access is allowed to the summit of Rattlesnake Mountain, including motorized access.

It takes an Act of Congress to create a wilderness area, and it requires an Act of Congress to fix or make necessary modest adjustments to an established wilderness area.

Decisions on wilderness designations should be made on a case-by-case basis.

It is Congress, and only Congress, that has the authority to designate lands as wilderness.

There is a near zero--in fact there is a zero--chance that the Committee will act on or advance bills that seek to designate wilderness areas in a district or a state that a Member isn't elected to represent.

The Obama Administration attempted to bypass the clear letter of the law with its Wild Lands Secretarial Order, which was a backdoor attempt to create new wilderness by Executive fiat.

A wilderness area is the most restrictive land use designation that Congress, and only Congress, can apply to our nation's lands.

Thirteen, and I am sorry, I thought it was 70,000, but 13 out of 55,000 is still a pretty darn small number.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own documents state that the imposition of the fishery management restrictions put in place last January will cost the commercial fishing industry between $44 million and $61 million…

The imposition of the fishery management restrictions put in place last January will cost the commercial fishing industry between $44 million and $61 million per year, and cause a job loss of between 250 and 750 jobs.