Designating Certain Land COmponents Of The National Wilderness Preservation System

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise this morning to support the statement of my colleague, the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as it relates to this legislation, the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009.

There has been a great deal of discussion in these past several days about priorities and whether the bills in this package actually reflect my particular priorities. Well, in fact, there are some priorities I do have. But are all these bills, all 160 of them, my priorities? No.

There has been a great deal of discussion about process. The fact that we have 160 bills packaged into an omnibus bill is cumbersome. Is this a process I would have chosen? Probably not.

Am I concerned about the ability of the minority to offer amendments? Absolutely. Absolutely. My colleague from Oklahoma has made a very strong case for why, in this deliberative process, in this deliberative body we should not be allowed to move forward and advance amendments. As I understand it, there were discussions yesterday that, hopefully, would have allowed a time agreement for consideration of amendments, but that didn't work out and that is unfortunate. But I do not believe the bills we see in this package result from an absence of careful consideration and process.

As the chairman has noted, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has had almost 2 years' worth of hearings, negotiations, and business meetings on these very bills we have in front of us. There has been that thoughtful committee process, there has been that review, there has been the input from the local level all the way to the top. The public lands bills in this package were considered and they were amended with the very concerns in mind that my fellow Senators are expressing today.

The concerns are most appropriate: How do we get a fair deal for the American taxpayer? How do we ensure we are not locking up land that could help improve our Nation's energy security? Are the lands we are protecting deserving of this? We can find that balance and we can maximize the development of our domestic energy resources while protecting our Nation's other natural resources.

So why so many bills in here? Well, for those of us in the West, so much of our land is federally owned that simple transactions often take literally an act of Congress. This bill transfers 23,226 acres of Federal lands to private and State sectors through conveyance, exchange or sale, and does so in a way that provides full value for the American taxpayer. The bill does authorize the expenditure of funds, but each of those is dependent on future appropriations that depend on the oversight of the Appropriations Committee and the Presidential budget request.

This process is not my preferred method for passing legislation. I wish to work with my colleague from Oklahoma and with others who have expressed their concerns about how we move public lands bills. I think working with the chairman we can improve this process, and we should. But I believe that overall what we have before us today is a package that will improve our Nation's management of its public lands and parks and will be a long-term benefit to our Nation. Therefore, I respectfully request my fellow Members' support for passage of this legislation and on this cloture motion we have before us this morning.

I yield the floor.

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