Discussion · Senate
Martin Heinrich Democrat
“I oppose this bill as it is written. It gives away public land without paying the American people back or giving them land of equal value in return.”
“Mr. President, this is like a three-legged stool where one of the legs is missing. I support cleaning up the parcels inside of the Tribal reservations that currently do not belong to them. But the public, who owns the Bureau of Land Management lands, also either need compensation or equal value. And this is simply a transfer of the public land of the United States of America that all of our constituents own, whether they are in North Dakota or New Mexico or Florida, without any compensation to the people of the United States. Whether transferring public land to counties, transferring public lands to States, or transferring public lands to private entities, without an equal value for the public, is simply something I cannot support.”
Mr. President, this is like a three-legged stool where one of the legs is missing. I support cleaning up the parcels inside of the Tribal reservations that currently do not belong to them. But the public, who owns the Bureau of Land Management lands, also either need compensation or equal value. And this is simply a transfer of the public land of the United States of America that all of our constituents own, whether they are in North Dakota or New Mexico or Florida, without any compensation to the people of the United States. Whether transferring public land to counties, transferring public lands to States, or transferring public lands to private entities, without an equal value for the public, is simply something I cannot support.