[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 135 (Thursday, October 7, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WILDERNESS ISSUES IN THE WEST

  (Mr. HANSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HANSEN. Madam Speaker, one of the most contentious issues we have 
in the West is called wilderness. We find it very interesting, because 
whole industries have started because of this. They come in and have 
their attorneys and their accountants, and they come up and do all they 
can to get all our brethren to sign on to their bills, which everybody 
knows means nothing. We find it interesting because they start out with 
a small amount, and it just keeps going up.
  Today, I am introducing a bill which will solve many of the problems 
of the great State of Utah, and I think this particular bill would be 
something that we could finally resolve this. This bill will call for 
2.3 million acres of wilderness in the State of Utah.
  But we have to be concerned about the local people there. For some 
reason, a lot of our people from the East think it is a throw-away vote 
to give away our western land. The people who live on the land, who 
make their living there, who recreate on the land should have a hand in 
this.
  Today, I am very concerned about the Utah Test and Training Range. 
For those of us who sit on the military committees, we realize that the 
Utah Test and Training Range is the best training range the United 
States Air Force has. And if another bill goes through, we will find 
that we are killing the golden goose, and we will not be able to train 
our pilots. I will assure the military there will be nothing in this 
bill that will be detrimental to this.
  Madam Speaker, I would hope that my colleagues could join us on this 
good piece of legislation and finally resolve an issue that has been 
very contentious to the West.

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