Natural Resources Committee

WRDA Conference Report: Water for California; Fire Protection for Tahoe. The conference report on the Water Resources Development Act is the product of many, many hours of good-faith negotiations between the House and Senate and between Republicans and Democrats.

This year marked the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service and of the uniquely American notion that our most beautiful and historic lands should be set aside for the use, resort and recreation of the American people as set forth in the original Yosemite Grant Act. Or, in the words of the Organic Act of 1916 that established the National Parks, “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same.”

This subcommittee measures bills according to three over-arching objectives for federal lands management: to restore public access to the public lands, to restore sound management practices to the public lands and to restore the federal government as a good neighbor to the communities directly impacted by the public lands. Of all the bills we have seen during this Congress, I believe no one has tried harder to adhere to these principles than Chairman Bishop in the bill before us today, the Public Lands Initiative (PLI).

I want to thank Congressman Gohmert for organizing this discussion of federal lands policy, and to highlight the Federal Footprint Map at Naturalresources.house.gov/federalfootprint. Or just google Federal Footprint. When you do, you’ll have a complete picture of how much land the federal government owns and how much of your state and your community is affected. And it may surprise you.

This amendment simply exempts from this act the debt issued by Puerto Rico that was backed by its constitutional pledge of full faith and credit and taxing power. Of the commonwealth’s $72 billion of outstanding bonds, this would exempt roughly $18 billion of constitutionally protected debt...

My central concern with this legislation continues to be that it potentially undermines the reliability of the constitutional full faith and credit guarantees of the states. These guarantees allow states to borrow at extremely low interest rates because debt repayment has first claim on revenues...

Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands meets to consider four bills that seek either to improve visitor amenities or protect grounds of significance to the history of our exceptional republic...