Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Chairman, this is one of those moments where I ran out of the Financial Services Committee where we were voting because I thought it was important, being an Arizonan, but also spending lots of time in this part of the State, which is a beautiful part of the State. And many of these little communities there have devastating unemployment, and they're literally furious with Washington, D.C., for destroying their timber jobs and squeezing their mining jobs. And then we stand here with something that, for a little State like Arizona, could be billions and billions of dollars of economic growth.

When you think about this one ore deposit could represent 20 percent of the Nation's copper, how can we even be debating this when you also realize an average single-family home uses about 440 pounds of copper? Do you want housing? How about a car? A car uses 55 pounds of copper. This is where it will come from.

The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. The last thing I want to say is my good friend Congressman Gosar from northern Arizona, and actually from all over Arizona, is deserving of a gigantic thank you here. To be a freshman Congressman and to step into this body to deal with what ultimately is sometimes a cantankerous issue but incredibly important to the Nation and the Southwest and to those of us that live in and love Arizona, this is important. This is a lot of jobs, a lot of economic growth. Congressman Gosar gets a lot of credit for getting it this far.

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