Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Chairwoman, when I chaired the Federal Lands Subcommittee a few years ago, the ranking Democratic member was from Massachusetts. She shared the Democrats' goal of having the Federal Government acquire as much land in the west as it possibly could. Try as I might, I could never impress upon her the difference between a State like Massachusetts, where the Federal Government owns only 1.2 percent of the land, and a State like mine, California, where it controls 46 percent. I have got one county in my district where the Federal Government owns 93 percent of the land.

And I tried in vain to get her to understand the dire economic implications for her district if the Federal Government one day seized 46 percent of her State, took it off the tax rolls, restricted public access, and forbade any productive use on it. What would that do to her State's economy? Yet, that is precisely what the Federal Government has done to the west.

Now, the Federal Government owns 39 percent of the State of Arizona. Our holdings include the largest deposit of high-grade uranium ore in the United States, one of the largest in the world. Its development is critically important to our future defense and energy needs at a time when 93 percent of the uranium we use comes from foreign governments.

Now, the Federal Government not only owns these critical deposits, it is responsible to the American people for their wise management and productive use.

Now, a rational person might say, well, thank God we can be independent of foreign governments and develop these reserves for the benefit of taxpayers and the economy. A rational person might say that.

But, of course, this bill is anything but rational. It would close these Federal lands, a million acres of them, far from the Grand Canyon, I might add, just to be clear, and forbid the American people from benefiting from these rich uranium deposits on the land that the American people own.

This bill imposes a completely irrational total prohibition on the development of these resources and devastates the economic potential for the communities nearby.

Indeed, this bill is most strongly opposed by the local representative from these communities, Congressman Gosar. The elected county supervisor from Mohave County came to Washington to plead with the Democrats not to hobble the economy of their rural district in this way. Once again, the Democrats dismissed the pleas of local residents in order to scratch their own ideological itch to seize as much land as they can and put it off-limits to the American people.

Madam Chair, I would remind the Democrats that this was the practice of the early Kings of England. They set aside one-third of the English countryside, declared them to be the King's Forests, off-limits to the common people. This practice so enraged the English people that no fewer than five clauses in the Magna Carta were written to redress their grievance.

Not content to limit such devastating restrictions to the Federal lands, this measure would also hamstring mining on tens of thousands of acres of State trust fund lands, which help fund Arizona's public schools and hospitals.

The Democrats have waged a war against agriculture and mining for many years now. This bill is just their latest ham-handed example.

I think the American people need to wake up to what a devastating future these policies will produce. Think about this: Everything that we touch, everything that provides for our survival, our comfort, our quality of life, absolutely everything, is either mined or is grown. I don't know of any exceptions.

I think it is time we carefully consider the nihilism of the modern left and where it would take our communities and where it would take our country before it is too late.

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