[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1958-H1959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             UTAH LAND GRAB

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, today in the Subcommittee on National Parks 
we heard testimony which should be disturbing to all Americans. In 
fact, we heard Senator Orrin Hatch testify that in 20 years in the 
Senate, he had never seen such an arrogant abuse of power.
  He was referring to the sneak attack by the Federal Government just 
before the last election to lock up 1.7 million acres in the State of 
Utah to produce what is called a national monument. This monument would 
be in the Escalante-Grand Staircase section of southern Utah. However, 
there are several reasons why this particular land grab has been 
questioned like no other in U.S. history.
  First, it was done with no public discussion or hearings of any type, 
no vote by the Congress, the Utah State legislature, or the people of 
Utah. In fact, the Governor of Utah testified at our hearing that the 
first notice any Utah public official had was when they read about it 9 
days beforehand in the Washington Post.
  This raises the second serious question, the secrecy, the coverup. 
Not only were high ranking officials not notified, but Senator Bennett 
testified that he now has administration documents which say that it 
cannot be emphasized enough that public disclosure would have stopped 
the designation because such an outcry would have been created. It 
almost makes you wonder if we have people running our Government today 
who want to run things in the secret, shadowy way of the former Soviet 
Union or other dictatorships.
  Third, this 1.7 million acres contains the largest deposit of clean, 
low-sulfur

[[Page H1959]]

coal in the world. Senator Hatch testified the coal alone is worth over 
$1 trillion. Who has the second largest deposit? The Lippo Group from 
Indonesia, who just happened to make some large campaign contributions 
to the Democrats about the time this land was locked up.
  In one small rural county in Utah, this means the loss of 900 jobs. 
Not only does it mean jobs lost, but it means higher prices for every 
individual and company which uses coal in this country. Environmental 
extremists, who almost always come from wealthy or upper-income 
backgrounds, are really destroying jobs and driving up prices all over 
this country. Rich environmentalists who have enough money to be 
insulated from the harm they do are really hurting the poor and working 
people of this country.
  Unfortunately, many in the environmental movement have become the new 
radicals, the new socialists of this day. They are advocating an 
unprecedented expansion of Federal power and, in many cases, are 
achieving it to the great detriment of all but a few elitists at the 
top.
  This national monument in Utah is just another of many examples. The 
size of this power play is enormous; 1.7 million acres is three times 
the size of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most heavily 
visited national park in this country.
  Why should people in other parts of the country be concerned about 
this? Well, it will have a tremendous ripple effect in our overall 
economy. Why should people all over this country be concerned? Well, 
because of the secrecy, the political wheeling and dealing, the 
arrogance, the extremism of this whole thing. But, perhaps even more 
importantly, if they do this in one place, they will do it in another. 
If they get away with this in Utah, they will do it in your State too. 
If people do not speak out, it will happen again and again and again.
  Already the Federal Government owns about 30 percent of the land in 
this Nation. State and local governments and quasi-governmental 
agencies own another 20 percent. So many restrictions are being placed 
on Federal land, and now even on private land, that this is now 
becoming a very serious problem.
  Parents and grandparents wonder why their college-graduate children 
and grandchildren cannot find good jobs. We are ending up with the best 
educated waiters and waitresses in the world. One big reason is that 
some of these extremists do not want us to dig for any coal, drill for 
any oil, or cut any trees.
  If we do not get a little moderation and balance back into our 
environmental policies, we will absolutely destroy our standard of 
living. Unfortunately, we cannot turn our entire Nation into a giant 
tourist attraction. Tourism is an industry filled with minimum wage 
jobs. Do we really want a nation made up of rich environmentalists, 
well-paid government bureaucrats, and almost everybody else working for 
minimum wage or very-low-paying jobs?

                              {time}  1830

  This Utah land grab is based on a 91-year-old law called the 
Antiquities Act. Supporters say apple pie and motherhood, things like 
this law have stood the test of time, and that it was used to protect 
and set aside the Grand Canyon and other great national treasures. 
Well, we have an entirely different situation today than we had 90 
years ago or even 20 or 30 years ago.
  The amount of land owned or controlled by Government has exploded in 
recent years. We have almost 10 times as much land in wilderness areas 
as just a little over 20 years ago. If this is still to be a free 
country a few years from now, if we are going to preserve this Nation 
as a Democratic republic where the people have control and where major 
government actions are not done in secret, then the Utah land deal 
should be reversed.

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