Rob Bishop

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 805) to authorize the conveyance of and remove the reversionary interest of the United States in certain lands in the City of Tulare, California.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Nunes), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is not a significant bill. We are talking about a couple of acres of property that used to be owned by the Federal Government that had no purpose and use for it. So they gave it up. But instead, Congress decided to include a reversionary clause with this stuff so that if they ever wanted to do something different with these 2 acres of property, they would have to come crawling back to us to ask for our permission to do it, which is silly. It is ridiculous that we have to go through this process time, after time, after time. The Federal Government didn't need this land originally. They still don't need it, but they still have that particular clause attached to it. This land needs to be given over to the city who uses it so they can make improvements on facilities that have been used since the 1800s. And that we have to go through an actual law to do this, is a silly practice that we maintain here in Congress. It should not be done. This is a perfect example of why the reversionary clause is no longer needed. If you really care about people, put a clause in there that says that if they want to change the practice, it has to be for the public interest and the public good. That would be logical. But what we have to do now is illogical in doing this particular bill. It needs to be done. It has to be done for the people who live there and for these properties, but it is silly that we have to go through this process. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to adopt this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 857) to provide for conservation and enhanced recreation activities in the California Desert Conservation Area, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cook), whose bill we are discussing, and who actually came up with the process of involving his community to do this kind of transfer the right way.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I insert into the Record background material for this particular bill. Background and Need for H.R. 857, the California Off-Road Recreation and Conservation Act President Clinton signed into law the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-433), which established the Mojave National Preserve, the Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park. It also created over 7 million acres of wilderness in the California desert, which stretches across millions of acres of the southeastern corner of the State. Since then, there have been numerous legislative efforts to apply additional federal land protections in this area, including the designation of additional wilderness, national monuments, and expansion of existing National Parks. In the 114th Congress, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced S. 414, the California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act of 2015, a bill that amends and updates the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 and reflects similar bills introduced in previous Congresses. S. 414 would have created two new national monuments, designated approximately 349,000 acres as wilderness, and expanded Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. Rather than pursue the legislative process, Senator Feinstein asked the Obama Administration in August 2015 to use its authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 (54 U.S.C. 320301 et seq.) to unilaterally designate three national monuments in the California desert--the Mojave Trails National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument--without Congressional approval. The following October, Senator Feinstein, the Department of the Interior, and Department of Agriculture hosted one public meeting on the prospect of designating these areas as national monuments, as well as other management priorities for the California desert area. In response to concerns raised regarding this monument strategy, Congressman Paul Cook worked with local communities and stakeholders to craft alternative legislation which attempted to balance the environmental protection of the desert's landscapes with recreational and other multiple-use activities that have occurred in the region for decades. The result was H.R. 3668, the California Minerals, Off-Road Recreation, and Conservation Act. It was the subject of a Federal Lands Subcommittee hearing on December 9, 2015, but no further legislative action was taken in the 114th Congress. On February 12, 2016, President Obama designated three new national monuments encompassing nearly 1.75 million acres in the Southern California desert. H.R. 857 seeks to balance many of the environmental and recreationalist concerns that have remained in the wake of the Obama designations. The bill creates the first system of Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) recreation in the nation by setting aside nearly 150,000 acres across six areas to enhance and protect OHV activity. The bill also releases approximately 121,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas, allowing for broader management of such lands. Additionally, as part of a compromise between OHV and environmental groups, H.R. 857 designates approximately 330,000 acres of new wilderness, creates a new National Scenic Area, and establishes 77 miles of new Wild and Scenic Rivers. Much of the wilderness designated under the bill is contained within a National Park or a Wilderness Study Area. The following groups support this legislation: Advocates for Access to Public Lands; Alabama Hills Stewardship Group; American Motorcyclist Association; American Sand Association; Americans for Responsible Recreational Access; The City of Bishop, CA; Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau; Blue Ribbon Coalition, Inc.; California Wilderness Coalition; Eastern Sierra 4X4 Club; Friends of the Inyo; Inyo County Board of Supervisors; Inyo County Superintendent of Schools; Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce; Lone Pine Paiute- Shoshone Reservation; Motorcycle Industry Council; National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council; Pew Charitable Trusts; Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association; San Bernardino County; Specialty Equipment Market Association; Specialty Vehicle Institute of America. selected section-by-section analysis as reported Sec. 2. California Off-Road Recreation and Conservation. Designates approximately 330,000 acres of wilderness in the California desert, 88,000 acres of which is primarily within Joshua Tree National Park and 180,000 acres of which is currently a Wilderness Study Area. This section also releases approximately 121,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas back into multiple use, and ensures that ``cherry-stemmed'' roads within wilderness remain open to motorized access. Adds approximately 40,000 acres to the National Park System. Approximately 35,000 acres of land would be added to Death Valley National Park, 25 acres would be added to Mojave National Preserve, and approximately 4,500 acres would be added to Joshua Tree National Park. Designates six existing administrative off-highway vehicle areas as ``National Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Areas,'' creating the first system of national OHV Recreation Areas in the nation. These include Dumont Dunes, El Mirage, Rasor, Spangler Hills, Stoddard Valley, and Johnson Valley (a total of more than 150,000 acres dedicated to OHV recreation), and designates an additional 51,980 acres of previously disturbed land for study and potential inclusion into the System. Designates 18,610 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land as the ``Alabama Hills National Scenic Area'' and includes the area in the National Landscape Conservation System. Takes 132 acres of federal land into trust for the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and prohibits gaming on the land. Ensures access to areas designated under the Act by tribes for traditional cultural and religious purposes, including the ability of a tribe to request the Secretary of the Interior to temporarily close any designated area to protect the privacy of traditional cultural and religious activities by members of a tribe or Indian religious community. Requires the development and implementation of a tribal cultural resources management plan to identify, protect, and conserve cultural resources of Indian tribes associated with the Xam Kwatchan Trail network. Establishes a California-Nevada Desert Tortoise Relocation Center with the aid of private partners and directs the Secretary of the Interior to study wildlife corridors and species migration in the California desert. Sec. 3. Visitor Center. Authorizes the National Park Service to acquire up to five acres of land for a Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center. Sec. 4. California State School Land. Allows BLM revenue from surplus land exchange and disposal to fund the purchase of California State school trust land. Sec. 5. Designation of Wild and Scenic Rivers. Designates 77 miles of new wild, scenic, and recreational rivers under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq.). The designations affect the Amargosa River, Surprise Canyon Creek, Deep Creek, and the Whitewater River. Sec. 6. Conforming Amendments. Makes conforming amendments and prevents the creation of buffer zones around new wilderness areas.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, let me just say very quickly here that what Representative Cook has done is taking an important issue and doing it the right way, by collaboration and outreach with local people who live in those areas on what they want to do with the public land. Public land does not necessarily only mean Federal land. Public land can also be State, it can be county, and it can be all sorts of entities' land, but the value of that land, whether it is Federal or State or county or municipality, is does it help the people of that particular area. What Mr. Cook has done in this particular piece of legislation is talk to them and find a way in which the land can actually be used to help people. So, yes, he released some wilderness study areas that were designated as unsuitable for a wilderness designation but then created three times that number of acreage in new wilderness designations as well as new wild and scenic river designations. Most importantly, because land is needed for recreational purposes, he puts protections for people who are using this land--OHV users, especially--that ensure these areas will not be closed administratively and that that kind of recreation opportunity will not be taken away on a whim. So what he has done is worked very hard with local people to find local people's needs and desires for their local land and provided them an opportunity that will provide not only economic benefits for a few, but also recreational benefits for many, as well as creating new wilderness designations at the same time and wild and scenic designations at the same time. This is a win-win for everyone involved. I commend him for his hard work in actually coming up with this particular process. This is the way land designation should be used. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to adopt this bill. I have no more speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3392) to provide for stability of title to certain land in the State of Louisiana, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), who is the sponsor of this piece of legislation.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This particular bill is not the first time we have talked about this on the floor. It is long overdue. In fact, it is about 100 years long overdue, with only a handful of homeowners having their title for which they have bought, sold, and lived for decades questioning whether they actually have the title to it or not. It is unfair, and it was wrong. It was wrong for BLM, and it is right for Congress to step in and try and solve this problem to bring some finality and certainty to an issue that never should have been an issue in the very first place. This harms the status quo and harms people. That is not our position, and that is not what we should be doing. So I appreciate the minority working with us on this particular bill very well because it is an extremely important one to try and finally solve this particular issue so we don't come back again. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Again, Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Johnson for this particular bill that is solving a problem that should never have been there in his particular district, for his efforts on it. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to adopt this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1791) to establish the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area in the State of Washington, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert), who is the sponsor of this piece of legislation, who is establishing a heritage area, and who is doing it the right way.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is often the situation where heritage areas that were originally established to try to allow local people to have some mechanism in which they can get together to actually advertise their particular area are usually for tourism interests or historical preservation interests. It kind of devolved, unfortunately, through time, to an issue in which people simply found a way of using the Federal Government as the deep pocket to keep getting more money all the time back to those particular areas, even though it was supposed to be a one-time situation. Then we found that other heritage areas found a way in which special interest groups got control of these areas and were starting to dictate to local government entities. Each of those problems that have been a significant problem in other heritage areas was eliminated by Mr. Reichert in his particular piece of legislation. That is why I said he did it the right way, with the right instincts, with the right purposes, the right illustration, especially with the emphasis on protecting private property rights and Native American rights. So this is one of the few heritage areas that I am happy to support, because it is organized the proper way to solve problems, not just try to find a cheap and easy way to get more money back into the area. So he is commended for his integrity and the way he has orchestrated that. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4257) to maximize land management efficiencies, promote land conservation, generate education funding, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Stewart).

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record additional background that is necessary for this particular bill. Background and Need for H.R. 4257, Advancing Conservation and Education Act The Advancing Conservation and Education (ACE) Act is based on existing provisions in western State enabling acts allowing States to select replacement lands in lieu of State school grants that were not completed by the United States. Congress granted most of the western States land to be held in trust by the States and used to support public education and other public purposes. Many of these State trust lands parcels are in a ``checkerboard'' pattern inside federal areas managed for conservation, such as national parks and monuments, national wildlife refuges, wilderness study areas, and areas of critical environmental concern. The intermingling of land ownership creates significant problems for both federal land managers and the States, since the latter are required to manage State trust lands to provide revenue for public education. Through its land use planning process, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) identifies lands that are difficult or uneconomic to manage, such as ``checkerboard'' areas. H.R. 4257 will help meet the goal of rationalizing land ownership in the west by creating an additional authority for the United States to acquire State lands in federal conservation areas, and compensating the States with equal- value replacement federal lands within the State. The current process where interested parties bring land exchanges to Congress on a case-by-case basis is time-consuming and cumbersome, and existing administrative land exchange authorities are equally challenging. The bipartisan proposal expands existing authority (43 U.S.C. 851-852), that allows western States to select federal lands ``in lieu'' of lands lost to the States when original statehood land grants were not completed. It would allow States with lands located in federal conservation areas to deed back those lands to the United States, and select replacement lands of equivalent value from the unappropriated federal public lands within that State. Many of the provisions of the proposal incorporate existing BLM administrative provisions for in-lieu selections, including land valuation, and compliance with BLM land use plans. It would not replace the land exchange process, but rather provide an alternative mechanism for State-federal land transfers. Further, H.R. 4257 also directs the Department of the Interior to create a process for the relinquishment of the parcels and sets forth requirements regarding hazardous materials on land conveyed, water rights, grazing permits, road rights-of ways, and other valid existing rights. The Western States Land Commissioners Association (WSLCA), a bipartisan organization of 21 State agencies responsible for managing more than 500 million acres of public and school trust land, has proposed a legislative solution to provide a mechanism for the United States to acquire lands owned by the western States and located inside federal conservation areas, while fairly compensating the States for those lands by granting them the right to select replacement lands of equivalent value from the public domain. The WSLCA proposal has had substantial input from western States and the conservation community. Previous iterations of the proposed bill have also been supported by conservations groups such as the Wilderness Society. H.R. 4257 is based on this proposal. H.R. 4257 would provide a useful tool for federal and State land managers to make their respective landholdings more rational, for the benefit of both sound land management and public education funding. A companion bill, S. 2078, has been introduced in the Senate. The policy provisions set forth in H.R. 4257 have enjoyed bipartisan support in the House and Senate in the 114th and 113th sessions..