Alan Simpson: “I have to respond to a couple of the statements that were been made because I know that they have been made over the…”

“I have to respond to a couple of the statements that were been made because I know that they have been made over the past by the Sierra Club and others. First of all, the Wilderness Society and the Campaign for American Wilderness would not be supporting this bill if we actually had wilderness-weakening provisions in this. And while there are compromises in that, and the comment of the ranking member, Mr. Rahall, that we should not have a quid pro quo, that is kind of the nature of a compromise, that there are some things in it that you like and some things that you do not like. There are provisions of this bill which I personally am not in favor of, but they were necessary in order to get the compromise that is necessary in order to pass this legislation and protect these lands. First of all, the land transfers that are being talked about, they total about 3,600 acres. This is in a county that is 95 public land, over 95 percent. Out of a total of 3.2 million acres in this county, we are talking about transferring about 3,600 acres. These are not the beautiful mountains that you see in the pictures. These are mostly desert lands, sagebrush lands. They will help the county do things like find room for their landfill, other things like that which will help in the economic development of this county.…”