Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As an active sportsman, I am proud to introduce this amendment today. It's likely that you have heard claims from some of my colleagues across the aisle that the manager's amendment will resolve the concerns that I have raised today, thus making this amendment redundant or duplicative.

Mr. Chairman, that is simply not the case. While I appreciate the intent of my colleagues to resolve my concerns, their language is still far too vague and needs additional clarification. As an avid hunter, I strongly support increasing access to public lands for hunting and fishing, but we can achieve that goal without eliminating the very wilderness protections that have protected some of the best wildlife habitat and, I would add, some of the best backcountry hunting opportunities in our Nation.

The bill under consideration today would eliminate long-standing protections against logging, oil and gas drilling, and motor vehicle use in wilderness areas. It would create a loophole in the Wilderness Act for anything that would provide ``opportunities for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting.''

Under the Wilderness Act, land managers are allowed to act in ways that are otherwise not allowed in wilderness areas if the action is necessary for ``the minimum requirements necessary'' for the administration of the area. In practice, the minimum requirements necessary language and standard means that land managers can use motorized vehicles, chainsaws, even helicopters in extreme emergencies, to fight fires, rescue stranded hikers, or remove downed trees from trails that threaten human safety.

This bill would extend that kind of exemption to any action that would ``provide an opportunity for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting.'' This means that activities otherwise not allowed in a wilderness area, like motor vehicle use, would now have to be permitted if it could be used to facilitate everyday activities like hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting.

Now, the manager's amendment includes language intended to address these concerns by providing that these provisions ``are not intended to authorize or facilitate commodity development, use, or extraction, or motor recreational access or use.''

Whether or not that's the bill's intention, the language in the bill allows for that possibility, and saying that wasn't the intent doesn't change what the language allows.

In contrast, my amendment provides that nothing in this bill ``shall be construed to allow'' these otherwise prohibited activities in wilderness areas.

``Intended'' versus ``shall''; there's a very powerful legal difference. And sportsmen across the country recognize this difference and support my amendment. In the last few hours, I've heard from countless supporters in my own State, including the New Mexico Wildlife Federation; the New Mexico chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; Dona Ana County Associated Sportsmen; the High Desert Sportsmen; and the Sportsmen Concerned of Northeast New Mexico, just to name a few. And nationally, we've heard from groups like the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and TU.

As the bill's sponsors say that they are not trying to create sweeping exemptions to the Wilderness Act, I have no doubt that they'll support my amendment, as it clearly eliminates these loopholes that were unintentionally included. As a back-country hunter, I know how valuable wilderness is to hunters and anglers, and I hope my colleagues will continue to support protecting wildlife habitat in wilderness areas and vote for my amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. Chairman, for more than a century, the Antiquities Act has given American Presidents the authority to protect some of our Nation's most important and threatened places. Across my State of New Mexico, we see the benefit of the Antiquities Act.

Bandelier National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, White Sands National Monument, and El Morro National Monument were all originally protected through the Antiquities Act.

Research done last year by the New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce shows that New Mexico's 10 national monuments established through the Antiquities Act account for 1.3 million annual tourist visits and $54 million in annual tourist spending supporting over 1,000 New Mexico jobs. In the last few weeks, countless New Mexicans, including sportsmen like myself, have asked President Obama to designate a new national monument to protect the Organ Mountains outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

We are calling on our President to protect our vulnerable natural and cultural resources in southern New Mexico through the Antiquities Act. This amendment offered by my colleague from North Carolina would take that power away from the President and give State legislatures the power to make decisions about public lands that belong to all Americans.

The Antiquities Act was specifically designed to allow Presidents to respond quickly to protect places in the national interest. Had the Antiquities Act been written with the language of this amendment, the Grand Canyon could have been overrun by sprawl, ancient cliff dwellings and the Petrified Forest National Park might have been looted, and the Arches National Park wouldn't even exist.

An additional concern is that several State legislatures only meet for a limited number of days each year and can't respond to urgent threats to public lands. In my State, we only meet for 60 days in odd years and 30 days in even years.

The Foxx amendment would prevent archeological, cultural, and historical sites from receiving the urgent protections they need. It also doesn't recognize that the United States has vast areas of unincorporated territory that is not under the jurisdiction of any State legislature.

President George W. Bush used the Antiquities Act to protect lands and waters in unincorporated Federal areas, including the Marianas Trench Marine and Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments.

National monuments should not be a partisan issue. After being signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, 16 Presidents of both parties--eight Republicans and eight Democrats--have used this act to protect federally owned lands and waters to better protect America's treasures for future generations. And by attaching this divisive issue to this bill, the chances of a Presidential veto are greatly increased. I hope that we would refrain from endangering the pro-sportsmen portions of this bill with controversial issues like this one. As an active sportsman, I strongly support the Antiquities Act, and I ask for a ``no'' vote on the amendment.

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