Designating Certain Land Components Of The National Wilderness Preservation System--Motion To Proceed

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments will be brief.

I, too, rise today to speak in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

The omnibus bill has been criticized as being large--and it is a large pile of paper. It is almost 1,300 pages. We acknowledge that. But this package of bills before us today also represents a huge commitment of time, a large commitment of resources by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as well as the other four Senate committees. In the case of the Energy Committee, this package, along with a similar package that was passed by the Senate last spring, represents almost 2 years' worth of hearings, negotiations, and business meetings on all of these public lands issues.

This package contains over 160 public lands bills, the vast majority of which went through the regular committee process, and then sat individually on the Senate calendar at the end of last session. There were 20 Members on my side of the aisle who were the primary sponsors of the bills in this package. Many more of them are cosponsors. Clearly, when you have this many individual pieces of legislation, this bill--this package--does a great many things. It covers the full range of the committee's public lands jurisdictions, whether it be from small boundary adjustments and land exchanges to large wilderness designations.

Some will argue that the number of bills contained in this package is bad and that somehow this is new and unprecedented. The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has traditionally been the most prolific committee in the Senate with regard to substantive legislation. The President pro tempore knows that; he serves on this committee. There are some who may claim it is bad to be advancing so much legislation, but for those of us from the Western States that contain large amounts of public lands, we understand legislation such as is contained in this package is necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the western economy.

Here, in the eastern part of the country, a farmer or a businessman who wants to acquire or sell new property can sign a contract. They can go to the courthouse. But in the West, simple transactions often take literally an act of Congress. That is what we see in so many of these individual bills that are part of S. 22.

This bill also designates those parts of our natural landscape and historical structures that deserve protection. I believe we as a nation can maximize the development of our domestic energy resources while at the same time protect our Nation's other natural resources and wilderness. In fact, the Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service have testified that none of the wilderness designations proposed in this legislation will negatively impact on the availability of oil, gas, or national energy corridors.

Now, there is one section that does restrict oil and gas development in Wyoming, but it is fully supported by the Wyoming State delegation, as well as Governor Freudenthal, and as mentioned by the chairman, the amount of the potential oil is 5 million barrels, not 331 million as argued by some opponents.

Furthermore, every land designation in this package was considered at the request of the affected State's delegation. Almost all of the lands in this bill are already federally managed lands, and most to be designated as wilderness are either within Federal parks or have been managed with restrictions such as wilderness study areas or ``roadless'' areas. So, therefore, a designation as Federal wilderness does not further restrict uses beyond what has been in place for quite some time.

This bill actually transfers 23,226 acres of Federal lands to private and State sectors through conveyance, exchange, or sale.

Finally, any provisions that received a negative score from CBO have been removed from the bill. Now, the bill does authorize the expenditure of significant amounts of funding, but each of those is dependent on future appropriations that depend on the oversight provided by the Appropriations Committee and Presidential budget requests.

While this process we have in front of us may not be the preferred method for passing legislation, I do believe overall this package will improve our Nation's management of its public lands and parks and will be a long-term benefit to our Nation. So I do respectfully request my fellow Members' support for passage of this important legislation.

With that, I know Senator Crapo from Idaho and Senator Bennett also wish to add a few comments. How much time do we have remaining?

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