Natural Resources Management Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, finally, following the President's call for unity and bipartisanship in his State of the Union Address earlier this week, I am glad to see the Senate responding to that call and taking up legislation that we are currently on that has received broad bipartisan support in the Senate just today.

Near the end of the last Congress, the Senate and the House reached an agreement on a package of more than 100 individual lands bills that received broad bipartisan support. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and weren't able to get it done, but next week, we will have the opportunity to vote on this important piece of legislation and send this bipartisan bill to the President's desk and demonstrate, once again, to the American people--lest anybody be in doubt--that we are capable of working together in a bipartisan way in advancing the interests of the American people.

Throughout my time in the Senate, I have been an advocate for America's outdoor sporting traditions and commonsense wildlife conservation policies. Enhancing and expanding sportsmen's access to Federal lands has been on Congress's to-do list for years, and this legislation will help make that a reality.

This package includes a series of bipartisan provisions negotiated over years, which will provide increased opportunities for sportsmen and sportswomen to utilize Federal lands for hunting and fishing. Those changes are coupled with additional ones for conserving and enhancing wildlife habitats to ensure we are protecting these lands for generations to come.

This legislation also authorizes dozens of land swaps--exchanges--and conveyances, which will deliver big changes to communities across the country, including in my State.

For example, the Lake Fannin recreation area was once a thriving tourist attraction for Texas, but, through the years, it has become dilapidated due to the inability of the Forest Service to properly do maintenance.

The county has now developed a comprehensive plan to manage that land for recreation, and this bill will restore local control to more than 2,000 acres in Fannin County, TX.

This legislation will also protect property owners along the Red River--the border between Texas and Oklahoma--who have faced uncertainty following a flawed Bureau of Land Management survey under the previous administration. This legislation will assure these landowners that the Federal Government has no rightful claim and will make no claim to their property.

Again, I look forward to debating this legislation in the coming days, and I hope we can pass this bill, which will allow for the responsible development and conservation of land across our country.

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