Wyoming Public Lands Initiative Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, this is a truly historic moment for my home State of Oregon because the Owyhees, which are really Oregon's version of the Grand Canyon, really should have had secured protection years ago. But, finally, as a result of the bipartisan support that my friend from Wyoming and I have--working with the incoming chair of the committee Mike Lee, and the current leadership, we have been able to pass these important pieces of legislation.

The timing for my home State is really just extraordinary because just yesterday, the Congressman from rural Oregon, Congressman Bentz from the Second District, and I put out a joint statement about how next year we intend to work together and with our constituents to come up with legislation that our whole State--urban and rural--could come together on to protect the ranching way of life in Malheur County and also our incredible treasures.

Congressman Bentz and I said we would work with our representative Chambers' leadership to pass the bill into law. Then, overnight, and to the great excitement of people in our State, due to the ending hours of Congress, when Members are trying to find some common ground, we have been able to work with our leadership in the U.S. Senate today, in this Chamber, to get started on what Congressman Bentz and I told our constituents yesterday would happen next year.

This did not happen by osmosis. The incoming ranking Senator, Martin Heinrich, and the incoming chair, Mike Lee, said that my bill, which cleared the Energy and Natural Resources Committee--S. 1890, the Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act--that they would allow it to pass the U.S. Senate tonight as an indication of the goodwill that all parties have pledged for next year.

As the chairman of the committee has noted--in fact, all the chairs, past and present since I was the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee at one point, understand that that is the key to really making some history in this extraordinarily important committee.

In our conversations with the incoming chairman, Mike Lee, he was particularly interested in the fact that Congressman Bentz and I are going to be working together to get this bill in shape so that people across Oregon will support it.

When he indicated that that was a priority for him, I basically said that is exactly what we have in mind as Oregonians, what I have in mind as Oregon's senior Senator.

I am very happy to state tonight publicly to the incoming chair of the committee, the Senator from Utah, that I intend to work very closely with Congressman Bentz to make this become law.

So, everybody in Oregon understands, this bill does not become law tonight, but what its passage does is send a message from the U.S. Senate that when you get people of goodwill and a willingness to find common ground, you can make real action happen. The Owyhee legislation that I have worked on for years with ranchers and hunters and fishers and environmental folks has now passed the U.S. Senate. That is something that, after decades of debate about the future of the Owyhee, nobody thought was going to happen anytime soon. In fact, yesterday people said: Well, we will have to wait to see what happens. Now the U.S. Senate has acted and acted, as I say, to protect the ranching way of life in rural Oregon and also our natural treasures.

I hope that tonight's action will give all parties interested in the protection of the treasures of the Owyhee and interest in preserving the ranching way of life, that it should give folks at home the chance to know that we are going to be in a position in 2025, with the leadership of the Senate and the House behind this effort, to be in a position to make this important legislation the law of the land, and the protection for the Owyhees will be permanent and will be in the text of black-letter law for all to see.

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