[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1273-S1274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



               Modernizing the Department of the Interior

  Mr. President, I have come to the floor today to talk primarily about 
the work Secretary Zinke has done in the Department of Interior and to 
thank him for taking a bold approach to modernizing the Department of 
the Interior. I commend him for taking this approach.
  The Secretary knows that 93 percent of all Federal land is located in 
the western part of the United States. This map shows the Federal lands 
around our country. If you look at the eastern seaboard, you can see a 
lot of patches of white, with a few patches of red in Virginia, West 
Virginia, the George Washington National Forest, the Shenandoah 
National Park. In Florida, you can see the Everglades National Park, 
the Great Smoky Mountains, but you can see the predominant shade of the 
western part of this country is red. Red signifies all the areas that 
are owned by the Federal Government.

  Look at the State of Nevada. Almost the entire State of Nevada is 
owned by the Federal Government--is public land. Look at the State of 
Colorado. It is public land owned by the Federal Government.
  Nationwide, the Bureau of Land Management is responsible for managing 
approximately 700 million acres of Federal mineral estate located 
underground and all of the Federal land management agencies' holdings. 
So it is not just land that is held by the Bureau of Land Management in 
Colorado, in fact, they hold even more when it comes to our mineral 
holdings.
  The BLM is also responsible for administering 245 million acres of 
Federal surface lands. As this map points out, nearly all of it in this 
country is in the 11 western-most States and Alaska.
  Historically, local BLM field offices have been diligent and 
effective managers of the public land for multiple use, as they are 
charged to do under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
  In fact, when I meet with county commissioners and others in the 
West, they all talk about the good relationship they have with their 
field offices and the good decisions they are able to reach with those 
field offices.
  Although, unfortunately, in recent years, directives and management 
coming from the BLM headquarters in Washington, DC--a long ways away 
from these publicly held lands out West, the 200-plus million acres of 
Federal land held by the BLM thousands of miles away from Washington, 
DC--have favored deep-pocketed, radical special interests over field 
office decisions and the opinions of those who live near and who 
actually use this land.
  Whether it is the withdrawal of mineral leasing or the reduction of 
grazing permits, the concept of multiple use--something that was 
fundamental to the founding of our public land agencies--has fallen out 
of favor with the Bureau of Land Management.
  When you don't live in the communities that are among and surrounded 
by these lands, it is easy to make these decisions that close off 
energy development or close off recreational opportunities or close out 
cattle ranching because the consequences are felt out West, 1,000-plus 
miles away from the decision makers in the Potomac.
  The BLM Headquarters Relocation Act is legislation I have introduced 
to fix this problem.
  I was pleased to see within its budget request that the Department of 
the Interior is planning a modernization of their organization and 
infrastructure for the next 100 years. At the very top of this 
modernization plan should be relocating the BLM headquarters out West. 
Move it out of Washington and put it exactly in the middle of these 
lands.
  Grand Junction, CO, the Western Slope of Colorado, is a beautiful 
place, a great city that can accommodate an agency headquarters and has 
the benefit of a populous that is intimately familiar with public land 
management policy and decision making. It makes perfect sense. It has a 
great airport, interstate access, a county with well over half of its 
land held by public land agencies. It is a community surrounded by 
public land. It is a community that is surrounded by people who are 
affected by those public land decisions. Doesn't it make more sense to 
have those decisions coming from the lands that they are regulating 
than from the beltway of Washington?
  This proposal has strong bipartisan support--Republicans and 
Democrats who agree. Let's put the decision makers into places where 
those decisions are felt first and foremost. Making this agency more 
accountable to the people who have to deal with its management 
decisions by putting its headquarters among the land managers would be 
a huge start and a great recognition that we can modernize this agency 
and this Department for the next 100 years.
  Thank you, Mr. President.

[[Page S1274]]

  I look forward to working with my colleagues on this critical piece 
of legislation, and I look forward to working with Secretary Zinke and 
the Department of the Interior to achieve this goal.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
3 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.