Oversight Hearing Committee on Natural Resources U.S
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EXAMINING THE SPENDING, PRIOR- ITIES AND THE MISSIONS OF THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT AND THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE AND THE PRESIDENT’S FY 2012 BUDGET PROPOSAL OVERSIGHT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS AND PUBLIC LANDS OF THE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION Tuesday, March 8, 2011 Serial No. 112-7 Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov or Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 65-118 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES DOC HASTINGS, WA, Chairman EDWARD J. MARKEY, MA, Ranking Democrat Member Don Young, AK Dale E. Kildee, MI John J. Duncan, Jr., TN Peter A. DeFazio, OR Louie Gohmert, TX Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, AS Rob Bishop, UT Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ Doug Lamborn, CO Grace F. Napolitano, CA Robert J. Wittman, VA Rush D. Holt, NJ Paul C. Broun, GA Rau´ l M. Grijalva, AZ John Fleming, LA Madeleine Z. Bordallo, GU Mike Coffman, CO Jim Costa, CA Tom McClintock, CA Dan Boren, OK Glenn Thompson, PA Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, CNMI Jeff Denham, CA Martin Heinrich, NM Dan Benishek, MI Ben Ray Luja´n, NM David Rivera, FL John P. Sarbanes, MD Jeff Duncan, SC Betty Sutton, OH Scott R. Tipton, CO Niki Tsongas, MA Paul A. Gosar, AZ Pedro R. Pierluisi, PR Rau´ l R. Labrador, ID John Garamendi, CA Kristi L. Noem, SD Colleen W. Hanabusa, HI Steve Southerland II, FL Vacancy Bill Flores, TX Andy Harris, MD Jeffrey M. Landry, LA Charles J. ‘‘Chuck’’ Fleischmann, TN Jon Runyan, NJ Bill Johnson, OH Todd Young, Chief of Staff Lisa Pittman, Chief Counsel Jeffrey Duncan, Democrat Staff Director Rick Healy, Democrat Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS AND PUBLIC LANDS ROB BISHOP, UT, Chairman RAU´ L M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Ranking Democrat Member Don Young, AK Dale E. Kildee, MI John J. Duncan, Jr., TN Peter A. DeFazio, OR Doug Lamborn, CO Rush D. Holt, NJ Paul C. Broun, GA Martin Heinrich, NM Mike Coffman, CO John P. Sarbanes, MD Tom McClintock, CA Betty Sutton, OH David Rivera, FL Niki Tsongas, MA Scott R. Tipton, CO John Garamendi, CA Rau´ l R. Labrador, ID Edward J. Markey, MA, ex officio Kristi L. Noem, SD Bill Johnson, OH Doc Hastings, WA, ex officio (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY CONTENTS Page Hearing held on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 .............................................................. 1 Statement of Members: Bishop, Hon. Rob, a Representative in Congress from the State of Utah ... 1 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 3 Gosar, Hon. Paul A., a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona, Prepared statement of ................................................................... 57 Grijalva, Hon. Rau´ l M., a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona ...................................................................................................... 3 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 Statement of Witnesses: Abbey, Hon. Robert V., Director, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior ........................................................................... 12 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 14 Tidwell, Hon. Tom, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture ..................................................................................................... 5 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 7 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY OVERSIGHT HEARING ON ‘‘EXAMINING THE SPENDING, PRIORITIES AND THE MISSIONS OF THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT AND THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE AND THE PRESIDENT’S FY 2012 BUDGET PROPOSAL.’’ Tuesday, March 8, 2011 U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Committee on Natural Resources Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in Room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Rob Bishop [Chair- man of the Subcommittee] presiding. Present: Representatives Bishop, Young, Broun, Coffman, McClintock, Tipton, Labrador, Johnson, Grijalva, DeFazio, Sarbanes and Kildee. Also present: Representatives Gosar and Benishek. STATEMENT OF THE HON. ROB BISHOP, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF UTAH Mr. BISHOP. The Subcommittee will come to order. Apparently I am supposed to bang a gavel, wherever it went. It just got banged. The Chairman notes there is the presence of a quorum here, which under our rules is two. So the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands is meeting today to hear the testimony on the spending pri- orities and the missions of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the President’s 2012 budget proposal. Under Committee Rule 4(f), opening statements are limited to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee so that we can hear from our witnesses more quickly. However, I ask unani- mous consent to include any other Members’ opening statements in the record if it is received by the clerk by close of business today. Hearing no objection, so ordered. I also ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Gosar, be allowed to join us on the dais and participate in the hearing. Once again, without objection, so ordered. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, but before that, I recognize myself for an opening statement. I want to thank you for appearing before this committee to present your respective (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY 2 agencies’ budget request. This is, of course, a challenging time for the Federal budget, just as it is for family budgets and millions of Americans. This year the House has decided to take the budget problem seriously. We know major changes are needed, and we cannot meet the challenge with the ‘‘business as usual’’ approach. Last month the House passed a continuing resolution for the re- mainder of Fiscal Year 2011 that would cut $100 billion from the President’s request level. EPA was cut by $3 billion, and some of their expansionist regulatory plans were specifically rejected. The Forest Service and BLM were not treated similarly. Under the House language, for the rest of the year, the funding for the Forest Service will be reduced by $38 million and for BLM by just under $23 million. The Wildlands Order affecting BLM was wisely rejected, thank goodness. It is a taste of things to come, Mr. Abbey. The Senate, though, has yet to act—surprise, surprise—on a long- term current CR as we now begin consideration of our Fiscal Year 2012 budget. Locked up in the agencies that you run is a vast amount of land with an abundant array of resources that, if properly and produc- tively managed, could make an enormous contribution to our well- being. These agencies that you run could provide secure domestic sources of energy, minerals, food, fiber and, if you follow prior con- gressional orders, good-paying jobs. Properly managed, these lands could provide a fair return to the western, resource, Hispanic com- munities that provide schools, place and services without the as- sistance of property taxes. And despite the thinking of some in our urban areas on the coast, these economic and national security ben- efits can be obtained, while at the same time increasing public recreation access and use, as well as preservation. So I look forward to hearing from you on your budget requests. From some of you, Mr. Tidwell, I look forward to hearing from you about gun ranges, cemeteries in Sardine Canyon, and perhaps even National Guard lands in Utah. But both of you have long careers in management of public multiple-use lands, and I want you to know, from working with the employees of your agencies at the local level, that there are a whole lot of professional, hard-working, reasonable people who work on the ground and report to you, some- times without wide knowledge coming from Washington. So I ask you to let them know how much I do appreciate the work that they do on the ground. And with that, just two personal notes. First of all, you will no- tice on the slides above you the amount of land that is owned by the Federal Government. One out of every three acres is owned by the Federal Government, and your domain is actually 93 percent in the West. We obviously have a great deal of impact by the deci- sions that you make. If it was reversed, that would be what the sit- uation would be. I kind of like that picture myself. Let me ask one last personal note, if I could. I urge both of you to assist with what I think is air traffic safety concerns. Similarly when I fly back and forth between home and here, that is a nice 4-hour flight. I see a lot of movies, I read a lot of books, I read con- stituent mail, and I also read about the activities that you guys are doing. I have to admit when I read about these issues, I will read a couple of paragraphs and then pull out my pillow and scream in VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:45 Jun 24, 2011 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 L:\DOCS\65118.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY 3 it and try to muffle the sound.