[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     FEDERAL LANDS IMPROVEMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 9, 1999

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] has 264 
million acres that it manages for the federal government. None of this 
land is national park or national forest land.
  The BLM has identified three million acres that it would like to 
sell, because it is not environmentally significant, surrounded by 
private land, difficult to manage, or isolated.
  Today, I have introduced the Federal Lands Improvement Act which will 
allow the sale of this land, with proceeds to go; one-third to the 
counties where the land is located for schools and other needs; one-
third to the national debt; and one-third back to the BLM for 
environmental restoration projects on its remaining land.
  As I have already stated, this bill would not sell any national parks 
or wilderness areas. It only proposed to sell lands that have already 
been identified for disposal by the BLM.
  Currently, the federal government owns 30 percent of all the land in 
the United States. This is roughly 650 million acres. In comparison, 
the State of Tennessee is only 26 million acres total.
  It only makes sense that the federal government consolidate its 
holdings so that it can

better manage those areas which are truly environmentally sensitive.
  I hope my colleagues will join me by cosponsoring this legislation so 
that we can take a step forward in protecting our federal lands.

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