Executive Calendar--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I have come down to the floor today to discuss a very important issue to Montanans and to many of my colleagues in the Senate, and that is the Land and Water Conservation Fund, also known as LWCF. I am joined by friends and colleagues--in fact, by the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. Burr, and the Senator from Colorado, Mr. Gardner--who know like me, firsthand, the importance of LWCF. Why we are here today is because in just a few short days--in fact, on September 30--this program is going to expire. Without any action from Congress, a program that is widely supported, provides more access to public lands, conserves our public landscapes, and--I think this is probably Senator Burr's favorite comment about LWCF--costs the taxpayers nothing--I bet you will hear that from him in a moment--is going to expire.

Of the many benefits provided by LCWF, the most important one to Montanans is making public lands accessible. In fact, I brought a few maps of Montana to show some of the challenges we have.

This map shows all the public lands in our State. Anything that is colored is a public land. That is Forest Service, BLM, national parks, wildlife refuges, and State trust land. As you can see, there is a lot of public land in Montana.

Our public lands help to drive a $7 billion outdoor economy, create tens of thousands of jobs, and supply about $300 million in State and local tax revenues. As an avid outdoorsman, myself, I know firsthand the importance of our public lands. In fact, in August, back home in Montana, my wife and I did a 25-mile backpack in the Beartooth Wilderness, fly fishing at lakes above 10,000 feet. That is my idea of a great weekend in Montana. But public lands out of public reach benefit no one.

This next map shows a portion of the eastern side of our State. In Montana, much of our public land is checkerboarded. You can see it a little better here because these checkerboards are sectioned. There are 640 acres in square miles. This means that each one of those yellow squares are inaccessible in many cases to Montanans.

This is BLM-owned public land, but despite being owned by the Federal Government, it cannot be accessed by the public. In fact, a recent study by the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and onXmaps, a great Montana tech company, found that there are 1.52 million acres in Federal land in Montana alone that are inaccessible. I have the onXmaps app on my phone. If you are a hunter, fisherman, or outdoorsman in Montana, you oftentimes will have that app because it tells exactly where you are and where the lands are public and where the lands are private.

Let me put this in context about the inaccessibility of our lands. In Montana, we have more inaccessible public lands to the people than the entire State of Rhode Island--about the size of Delaware--all of which Montanans are locked out of, and public land that is only open to a select few or to none at all is really not public at all.

The next map shows the western side of Montana, where we see the same problem on Forest Service land. If you look here, you can see a piece of checkerboarded land. We are using LWCF dollars to expand public access.

In fact, the Beavertail to Bearmouth corridor is currently the highest ranking Forest Service LWCF project. This project unlocks approximately 1,900 acres of currently inaccessible public land.

As you can see on this map, there are whole sections that Montanans are locked out of. This project--like many LWCF projects--ensures that our booming outdoor economy can continue to grow. It allows hunters, anglers, and other sportsmen to have access to their public land. However, projects like this are in danger if we don't reauthorize LWCF. Luckily, very fortunately, there has been some good work done. Recently, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed a bill to permanently reauthorize LWCF.

I thank Congressman Gianforte from Montana, on the House side, and Chairman Bishop of Utah for getting that pushed through. The House has done their job. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has also passed legislation to reauthorize LWCF. We now need to get this through the full House and the Senate, and we need to do that now.

LWCF is a program that maximizes the value of public lands to taxpayers, it boosts our economy, and it has strong bipartisan support. Lord help us, we know we need some bipartisan bills right now in this city. That is why I stand here today to urge my colleagues to act and reauthorize this critical program.

Montana is not the only State that has greatly benefited from LWCF. I want to turn it over to my colleague--truly one of the warriors in LWCF--the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. Burr.

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Mr. DAINES. I thank Senator Burr.

I think it also demonstrates the diversity, geographically, that we have a Senator from North Carolina, a Senator from Montana, and a Senator from Colorado. It doesn't matter if you are a Western State or a State on the East side of our Nation. I knew Senator Burr would talk about the fact that it costs the taxpayer nothing. I hear that all the time. Members care deeply about responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. It doesn't cost the taxpayer anything.

There is another word I always hear from Senator Burr; that is, it is ``permanent'' reauthorization. This is no longer an experiment. This is proven. This is why we need to move away from this temporary reauthorization and make it permanent.

I am pleased to have another colleague of mine from Colorado, Senator Gardner, join me now. We would be border States if it weren't for the State of Wyoming. Senator Gardner is in the southern part of the Rockies, a beautiful State. I am grateful to have the Senator as one of the key champions in the U.S. Senate of LWCF, Mr. Gardner.

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Mr. DAINES. Senator Gardner, thank you. I thank Senator Burr as well. I think this is something that, for us, is more than a policy discussion. You can see the passion from each Member here. It is a way of life.

I come from a State--Montana--where a mom or a dad or a grandpa or grandma can still load up a son or daughter or granddaughter or grandson in the pickup and go down to Walmart and buy an elk tag or a deer tag over the counter and then head out and have access to public lands to hunt and to fish. That makes America unique. You don't see that in most places around the world, and that sets us apart as a unique people.

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Mr. DAINES. Yes.

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Mr. DAINES. Thank you, Senator Burr.

I will tell you why that permanent reauthorization is important in places like Montana, Colorado, and North Carolina. It is because it takes time to put together some of these consolidations of checkerboard lands to make this all work.

Here is an example of that right here. This is a project that was executed. And you see we are not playing checkers here; this is the way the land management works oftentimes out West. So to make all that happen, to get the parties--the State, the Federal Government, and a private landowner--together here, sometimes takes years.

What we don't need to have is the Federal Government back here-- Congress--providing uncertainty about whether we are going to fund a process that oftentimes takes years, getting the landowners, the State, and the Feds together to execute a consolidation that gives the public access to those public lands. That is why permanent reauthorization is so important, to take that off the table. There are enough challenges already with the LWCF and with trying to make these transactions work without having Congress get in the way.

I thank you, Senator Burr, for your passion, for your steadfast commitment to the permanent reauthorization. And keep reminding us that it costs the taxpayers nothing. I think it is a pretty good value.

So, again, I want to thank both my colleagues here. They have been strong leaders on this issue. We are going to keep fighting. As Senator Burr just ticked down from 100 days, now we are down to 4 days. We are going to fight for this every opportunity we have. We all urge our colleagues to listen to the stories you heard today, listen to your constituents, and join us and finally reauthorize to save LWCF.

Thank you.

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