[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 24, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3944-S3945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SENATE RESOLUTION 483--ESTABLISHING A POINT OF ORDER AGAINST 
    LEGISLATION SELLING FEDERAL LAND IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT

  Mr. WALSH (for himself, Mr. Heinrich, and Mr. Udall of Colorado) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Natural Resources:

                              S. Res. 483

       Resolved,

     SECTION 1. POINT OF ORDER AGAINST SELLING FEDERAL LAND IN 
                   ORDER TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT.

       (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), it 
     shall not be in order in the Senate to consider any bill, 
     joint resolution, amendment, motion, amendment between the 
     houses, or conference report that sells any Federal land and 
     uses the proceeds of the sale to reduce the Federal deficit.
       (b) Exception.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to the sale 
     of Federal land as part of a program that acquires land in 
     the same State that is of comparable value or contains 
     exceptional resources.
       (c) Supermajority Waiver and Appeal in the Senate.--
       (1) Waiver.--This section may be waived or suspended only 
     by the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members, duly 
     chosen and sworn.
       (2) Appeal.--An affirmative vote of three-fifths of the 
     Members, duly chosen and sworn, shall be required to sustain 
     an appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of order 
     raised under this section.

  Mr. WALSH. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about one of our 
greatest treasures in this country: our public lands. Growing up in 
Butte, MT, I woke up every day under the morning shadow of the 
Continental Divide, part of the Deerlodge National Forest. When I was a 
kid, my dad would take me fishing on the Big Hole River. On the living 
room wall in my parents' home, there were pictures of three people: a 
picture of Jesus, a picture of JFK, and a picture of George Meany. I 
have carried the values my parents instilled in me to this day.
  I grew up in a Catholic home similar to Montana writer Norman 
Maclean, who wrote in his famous book ``A River Runs Through It'' that 
his father, a Presbyterian minister, ``told us about Christ's disciples 
being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, 
that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly 
fishermen, and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.''
  As an adult serving in the Montana National Guard, I would ride my 
mountain bike almost daily all over trails in

[[Page S3945]]

the Helena National Forest that connect our streets in the capital city 
of Helena. One day my granddaughter Kennedy will fish and bike these 
same lands and waters. These places all have one thing in common beyond 
being gorgeous and being in Montana; they belong to you and me. We all 
own them. They are part of what makes living in Montana and in America 
so special. Other countries and other States have lost this heritage 
but not in Montana.
  Maintaining and improving access to these lands is one of the most 
important things we can do. That is why today I submitted legislation 
to make it harder to sell off this land. My bill will create a budget 
point of order in the Senate to block attempts to sell off public land 
to pay for Congress's bills.
  There is no question that Washington has a spending problem. Since 
arriving in the Senate, I have proposed several ways to rein in out-of-
control spending. But selling off our kids' and grandkids' heritage is 
a terrible idea. Jeopardizing the countless jobs that rely on our 
outdoors is also a terrible idea.
  There is a theory circulating in some parts of the West that the 
Federal Government has a continuing duty to dispose of its lands in 
Western States. What this really means is handing over our most popular 
recreation areas to the highest out-of-State bidder. That is good for 
copper barons and trophy-home developers, but it is bad for us.
  This theory is as radical as it is wrong, as court rulings have 
repeatedly found, but it is getting real traction.
  Our colleagues in the House of Representatives have passed a budget 
that could sell off millions of acres of public land--our land--in 
Montana.
  I want you to know that I will fight any similar attempts in this 
Chamber. I want my granddaughter Kennedy to grow up in Montana with the 
same easy access to streams and forests I enjoyed, whether she wants to 
hunt, hike, fish or bike.
  We also need to get our forests healthy and working again, creating 
good jobs and making our forests more resilient to wildfires.
  Like many Montanans, I am frustrated with how long it takes to 
conduct a timber sale or complete an environmental analysis of 
potential projects. Even simple projects get tied up in court, and our 
rural communities and the land itself suffer for it.
  But the solution isn't to hand the keys over to special interests and 
walk away. The solution is to manage the land--from the ground up.
  In Montana, tourism is critical to our economy. Outdoor recreation 
supports 64,000 jobs and generates over $5.8 billion in revenue 
annually. Cutting off access or selling the land to out-of-State 
development is a direct threat to jobs in Montana.
  Turning over land in the State is just one step away from 
privatizing. There is no question that private land is the misguided 
ultimate goal of many who don't understand our outdoor heritage in the 
West.
  In the year 2000 I led the response of the Montana National Guard to 
the wildfires that consumed over 1 million acres of Montana land. The 
Departments of Agriculture and Interior have spent about $1.8 billion 
annually to fight wildfires in the past 5 years. States simply cannot 
afford that pricetag. One bad wildfire season could bankrupt a State.
  I want to share a little more about what is at stake.
  Under the Ryan budget in the House of Representatives, with an 
auction of our public lands, Montana hunters could lose access to elk 
wallows of the Pioneer Mountains. You might hear elk bugling on 
Tenderfoot Creek in the Little Belt Mountains, but it could be on 
private land instead of land protected by the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund.
  Montanans could be shut out of the Missouri River Breaks, locked out 
of putting a canoe in or hunting a mule deer or sheep.
  We could lose the Rocky Mountain Front, facing padlocks and orange 
signs instead of open space and the chance for a bighorn sheep tag.
  Under the House plan, anglers in Montana could lose the headwaters of 
Rock Creek or the Smith River and the chance to sink a perfect fly from 
a streamside the public owns.
  Despite years of effort to secure access, we could be shut out of 
land around the Three Dollar Bridge south of Bozeman that helped kids 
like me--growing up, fishing in our own blue-ribbon streams. The same 
thing could happen to the centennials and swan.
  We could lose the best eastern Montana has to offer, from the monster 
bucks and turkeys in the Custer National Forest to the duck factory of 
the BLM's prairie potholes.
  Under the House plan, we could be facing closed roads, closed trails, 
and closed land in the Gallatin National Forest that thousands of 
Montanans worked together 20 years ago to keep open and keep public 
forever.
  Montana is the last best place because we can hunt, fish, hike, and 
play on the land that we all own. I will fight to keep it that way.

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