[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H8635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SUPPORT THE VENTO-RAHALL AMENDMENT TO THE AMERICAN LAND SOVEREIGNTY 
                             PROTECTION ACT

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, today we have a chance to vote on a good 
amendment, the Vento-Rahall amendment. We have the so-called American 
Land Sovereignty Protection Act which breaks really two treaties and 
repeals a protocol with hundreds of nations. The United States has led 
efforts of hundreds of nations to, in fact, provide the conservation 
and recognition of our areas.
  But in this bill, last night we were able to offer an amendment which 
deals not just with conservation but deals with exploitation. We think 
if the Congress is going to approve the conservation measures in this 
Congress, it ought to also approve foreign firms that seek to exploit 
this, exploit our resources, and there are many of them. We know under 
the 1872 mining law that Canadian, United Kingdom, Danish, and 
Australian firms are coming in here and getting billions of dollars 
worth of important assets for mere thousands of dollars.
  The Vento-Rahall amendment today gives us a chance to vote on that, 
to vote to provide parity; that is to say, if we are going to have 
conservation votes, we ought to have votes when we have exploitation.

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