[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 101 (Thursday, July 1, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H5308]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               STOP PLAYING SPY GAMES WITH WESTERN LANDS

  (Mr. REHBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. REHBERG. Secret documents, clandestine meetings, code words, and 
secret identities. Despite all of these elements of a dime store spy 
novel, this isn't fiction. It's the United States Department of the 
Interior.
  Almost 4 months ago a secret memo was discovered. Across the top, 
where you might see ``top secret,'' it said ``not for release'' 
instead. It contained secret plans to designate millions of acres 
across the West as national monuments. My colleagues and I demanded the 
missing pages, and after nearly 4 months, mum is the word.
  Meanwhile, new emails hint at a conspiracy that would be at home in 
an Ian Fleming novel: meetings with United States Senators to discuss 
projects, treasured landscapes, contingency plans, complete with maps, 
fit for a Pentagon war room.
  Americans like spy novels, but there's no place for covert 
policymaking in America. The Department of the Interior should stop 
playing spy games with Western lands.

                          ____________________