Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAPO. I thank Senator Risch.

Mr. President, it is an honor for me to rise with my colleague Jim Risch to celebrate the passage of this legislation. It has been years and years in the making. This legislation culminates from the hard work by people all over Idaho. As Senator Risch has indicated, the credit for making this all finally come together goes to Representative Mike Simpson. I wholeheartedly agree with that.

Passage of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act, also called the SNRA+ Act, is the result of tremendous efforts by Representative Simpson and Senator Risch. He deserves tremendous credit as well. I do want to say that I honor Representative Simpson's dogged determination and his persistence to fight through many obstacles associated with this treasured region of our State for a very long period of time.

Representative Simpson's efforts have given Idaho a homegrown solution to what was rapidly becoming a national problem. As I said, similarly, my colleague Senator Risch has fought through many challenges in his pursuit of developing a consensus on this issue that has been hard to achieve. Both of my colleagues, in their respective ways, have expressed again the power of collaboration in the attempt to find consensus to deliver local solutions to longstanding public land management challenges in Idaho.

Local governments and local stakeholders must be empowered to shape and manage decisions relating to our public lands. In the process, such efforts must respect private property rights and the owners of private property as well as other impacted stakeholders. Such initiatives are never easy to achieve, and consensus takes dedication, patience, and persistence. For too long, westerners have been saddled with top-down land management decisions that are both harmful to the landscape and the people living in and subsisting off of our natural treasures. The SNRA+ is a win for Idaho and an example of how local governments and interests can achieve solutions to some of the most persistent public land management issues we face.

I have to conclude by saying that while we have succeeded today in passing a milestone in Congress, the focus must now shift to the hard work of successful implementation that will require commitment from the various Federal agencies and all of the affected interests.

Again, I commend Senator Risch and Representative Simpson for their incredibly important work that has been accomplished today.

I yield the floor.

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