On the recordJuly 7, 2015
I will talk about the three different provisions to this amendment. Let me first talk about the sage-grouse. The sage-grouse provision in this bill is meant to give the Fish and Wildlife Service time to make a determination of whether there ought to be a listing or not. The court has ordered them to make a determination by, I think, September 30. We are trying to give them the time necessary. This is going to affect 11 Western States. It is not going to affect Massachusetts, by the way, but it is going to affect 11 Western States substantially. They have recently put out their resource management plans to the States. There is a period in which the States have a chance to interact with the Federal agency and raise their complaints and so forth about what the problems are with their resource management plans. We are trying to give the Fish and Wildlife Service and the States-- the 11 Western States, by the way, not Massachusetts--the time to come up with a plan so that we don't list this bird. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the States--everybody, essentially--agree we don't want sage-grouse listed. The States have made incredible progress and have made incredible sacrifices. The State of Wyoming has taken, I want to say, millions of acres which have potential resources off the table in order to protect the sage-grouse. So we have taken extraordinary efforts to make sure that we don't list this bird.…
