Treating Tribes and Counties As Good Neighbors Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. FULCHER. Mr. Speaker, for years, States could enter into cooperative agreements with Federal land management agencies to aid in reducing the excess fuel load that makes fires in the West so damaging to people, property, and wildlife.

H.R. 1450 fully extends the same authority and access to revenue that States have to counties and Tribes.

Some States, primarily in the Western U.S., have large percentages of their land controlled by the Federal Government. In my home State of Idaho, for example, it is 62 percent. As a result, citizens in my State must generate enough economic growth to sustain our needs from just the resources contained within the available land remaining.

One can argue that Idahoans and citizens from other States with a similar dynamic are merely tenants of their Federal landlord.

Counties and Tribes face a microcosm of that challenge within the States they reside. There are counties in my district, like Idaho around Owyhee, for example, where the Federal Government controls more than 83 percent of the land within their borders. Without ready access to the natural resources and related tax revenue in these areas, it is difficult for residents and local municipalities to create wealth and provide the ingredients necessary to raise families and grow businesses.

This bill would enable access to resources. As a result, the livelihoods of people in rural America would be enhanced through job creation, new sources of income, and the economic activity that comes with it.

Federal land management agencies are often unable, due to lack of resources, or unwilling, due to bad policy or litigation, to adequately maintain the density of tree growth, brush, and other vegetation that creates the fuel load for wildfires. Yet local residents, as tenants of the land under their own feet, can only wait and hope for their Federal landlord to come up with the resources needed to responsibly manage land in and around their communities. H.R. 1450 empowers local counties and Tribes so they can engage, and at least have a chance to put some wisdom into how these lands are managed.

We, in the West, care about our environment. God has blessed us with an abundance of natural resources, and that comes with the responsibility of wise stewardship. H.R. 1450 recognizes and incentivizes just that, allowing a portion of receipts from timber sales, for example, to be shared with counties and Tribes. That is a win-win situation. Tribes and counties are local, and as such, they are on the front lines of the land management battle.

I thank Chairman Westerman, my co-lead, Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and all of my other colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee and the Agriculture Committee for their support of this legislation.

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