Oversight Hearing on: "Restoring Multiple Use to Revitalize America’s Public Lands and Rural Communities"
2025-02-11
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Source: Congress.gov
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The chair is authorized to declare a recess of the subcommittee at any time. Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on restoring multiple use to revitalize America's public lands and rural communities. I ask unanimous consent that the following members be allowed to participate in today's hearing. From the dais, the gentlelady from Wyoming, Ms. Hageman, and the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Crank. Without objection, so ordered. Under Committee Rule 4F, any oral opening statements at hearings are limited to the chairman and the ranking minority member. I therefore ask unanimous consent that all other members' opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they are submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3, parent O. Without objection, so ordered. I'll now recognize myself for an opening statement. I want to welcome everybody To the first official subcommittee on federal lands in the 119th Congress, last Congress, the subcommittee continued its bipartisan tradition by sending more than 15 separate pieces of legislation to the president's desk. In fact, if federal lands were counted as a full committee, it would have tied for the fourth most productive committee in the House last Congress. This is also based on a conservative estimate since we're not counting the numerous other bills signed into law through comprehensive packages like the Explore Act. As we begin our important work in this new Congress, this subcommittee will work with the Trump administration and the new Republican Senate majority to restore multiple use to our public lands, empower local communities, and revitalize rural economies. And there's much work to be done. President Biden left America's public lands and natural resources in a sorry state. For four long years, President Biden and his federal land managers abandoned the longstanding and previously uncontroversial principle of multiple use. Instead, they adopted top-down preservationist schemes designed to placate extreme environmentalists. Along the way, Biden's officials never seemed to notice or care that their reckless policies
were inflicting enormous damage on America's rural economy, housing affordability, energy dominance, and national security. While virtually no American was spared by President Biden's irresponsible natural resource policies, the harm was felt most acutely out West. Growing urban centers like Salt Lake City and Las Vegas suffer from exorbitant housing and rental prices, largely because they are encircled by federal land. Rural communities are facing economic devastation as generations old grazing and logging businesses have had to shut down due to ruinous regulations And on top of all that, the Democrats' profligate spending brought us the highest inflation in 40 years, which disproportionately hurt rural residents. The startling scope and arrogance of these policies were laid bare by the Biden administration's 30 by 30 agenda. Under this initiative, federal land managers sought to lock up at least 30 percent of the nation's land and waters by 2030, seldom remarked. was the fact that the federal government already owns 640 million acres, or roughly 28% of the nation's land mass, including nearly 50% of the land out west. The 30 by 30 initiative then was simply a misleading attempt to justify further land grabs. 30 by 30 was consistently cited when the Biden administration designated new national monuments or announced ill-advised mineral withdrawals. Under glaring abuses of the Antiquities Act, the former president sealed off nearly 6 million acres in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado,
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