Doc Hastings

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. I just point out that this is an increase of 44 percent over the current land value, and I know we're talking about acres and we're not talking about square miles. But to paraphrase former Senator Edward Dirksen, in another sense, you know, a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real dollars. Well, we're talking about Federal land ownership, and I'm very sensitive to that because I come from the western part of the United States. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, 40 percent of my district is owned by the Federal Government, and I have some counties in which 75 percent of the counties' land mass is owned by the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, at this time I'm pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 429 allows for consideration of H.R. 1100, the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Boundary Revision Act, which would increase our Federal inventory of land by up to 115 acres. Rarely does the Rules Committee consider rules for bills making changes to historic sites because they are typically brought to the floor under suspension of the rules. Mr. Speaker, coming from an area in central Washington that is 40 percent federally owned land mass, I believe we ought to be encouraging land exchanges where possible rather than more land purchases. The Federal land management agencies simply have too much land to manage effectively with their current level of funding. We all know there is a serious backlog of road, trail and facility maintenance on Federal lands. In many cases, Federal land agencies are struggling to manage invasive species, plant pests, and unnaturally high fuel loads that lead to catastrophic wildfires. Yet, year after year, we are spending precious tax dollars to buy up more private property and take it off the local tax rolls. We need to make land exchanges and the orderly restructuring of Federal land holdings easier. The Federal Government owns and must maintain many small, isolated parcels of land that have no special resource value. We should make it easier for the Federal agencies to dispose of these properties and retain the proceeds to acquire lands that are high in resource value. This is a practical solution that allows us to protect special places without having to spend limited tax dollars. I would also add that there are many other issues, in my view more pressing matters, affecting public lands management that we could be considering today. For example, the extension of payments to forested counties for rural schools and roads. As many of my colleagues are aware, the Congress long ago promised rural communities that they would get a fair share of the revenue produced from Federal forestlands as compensation for the tax-exempt status of Federal forestlands. However, unfortunately, special interest groups successfully used litigation under the Endangered Species Act to bring harvest to a standstill in many places like the Pacific Northwest. This left many counties struggling to pay for basic services while saddled with large areas of nontaxable Federal land. Although the House has passed legislation providing for a 1-year fix on this issue, we need a longer- term solution, and we need to get this legislation to the President's desk as soon as possible. So, Mr. Speaker, I hope that the House will soon have an opportunity to consider these and other issues impacting Federal land management. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Arcuri) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, I will be asking for a ``no'' vote on the previous question so that I can amend section 2(c) of this rule after ``shall not be subject to amendment'' and insert ``(except the amendment numbered 43 in the report, to be offered by Representative Michaud of Maine, or his designee).'' By defeating the previous question, Members will be able to offer amendments to the Michaud amendment, and a full and wide range of views can be discussed. Those rules were denied because we were not allowed to offer secondary amendments, at least, to the Rules Committee. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment and extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa, a member of the Appropriations Committee (Mr. Latham).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma, a member of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Cole.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I'd ask my friend from Florida how many speakers she has on her side.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), the ranking member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Akin), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode).

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. It is true we, the minority members of the Rules Committee, offered secondary amendments, but they are secondary amendments, and we had asked unanimous consent of the full committee to break the order because they were denied to be submitted on regular order. So while, yes, we offered them and they were defeated on a party-line vote, had they been offered, they would have had a notation that they were late and they probably would have been rejected. My point is you broke from tradition. You broke from tradition by not allowing a Member to submit an amendment late. That is my whole point. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. None. That is precisely my point. My point is how can a Member offer a second-degree amendment until an amendment has been offered to which a Member could respond to. So the gentlelady talks about 135 amendments. That tends to be somewhere near the norm for Defense authorization bills in the past. So there is nothing outside that norm. I thank the gentlelady for making the point. None of the 135 were second-degree amendments, and my remarks were specifically addressed to second-degree amendments.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I would ask the gentlewoman, how many of those 135 amendments were second-degree amendments?

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?