Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wish to speak today about the Burr-
Bennet amendment No. 92, which we are slated to vote on later today. I
will be brief because it is pretty straightforward.

The amendment simply reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation
Fund and ensures that a dedicated portion of LWCF funds go to provide
new access for our Nation's sports men and women.

As many in this body know, the Land and Water Conservation Fund is
one of the country's best and most important conservation programs. It
is authorized to provide $900 million annually for efforts to preserve
and increase access to our public lands and waterways. These resources
historically have been used for projects that range from building city
parks, to purchasing small parcels of isolated land from willing
sellers, all the way to preserving the Nation's historic battlefields.

This past summer in Colorado, we completed a huge LWCF project that
retired several old mining claims on the San Juan National Forest near
the town of Ophir.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, the town invited me and my family to
join them in a celebration of the accomplishment, and we took them up
on that offer without a moment's hesitation.

Ophir sits at 9,600 feet above sea level. It is the kind of place
that has a sign on its main road--clearly painted by the kids who live
in the town--indicating that their population totals 163 people,
including, according to the sign, 55 kids, 30 dogs, and 15 cats. When
we pulled in on the morning of the celebration, it seemed to me that
the entire town was there. Over the course of that day--which included
a hike, a picnic, and a formal program--it was amazing to hear from the
community about the importance of this LWCF project and how many years
so many people in the town devoted themselves to getting it done.

Many of our mountain communities get huge portions of their revenue
and business through recreation and tourism, and it is for some of
these reasons that the town felt LWCF literally helped cement its
economic future.

I was an LWCF supporter before that visit, but that day really drove
home the value of the program to me. That is only one of countless
stories from Colorado. I know it can be replicated thousands of times
across the country in all 50 States. Those stories and accomplishments
alone make this amendment worth supporting.

Let's also remember that when we are talking about LWCF, we are not
talking about taxpayer dollars. When Congress crafted the measure back
in 1965, they had a very innovative solution for how to pay for their
concept. Instead of using taxpayer dollars from the Treasury, they
decided to dedicate a portion of the revenue the government collects
from offshore oil drilling to fund LWCF. This argument was very simple
and elegant.

As we deplete our natural resources--offshore reserves of oil and gas
in this case--we ought to support the conservation of another natural
resource: our lands and waterways. As I mentioned, Congress passed a
law in 1965, and now it is time to reauthorize it. I thank Senator
Burr, who has shown great leadership in crafting the amendment to do
just that.

This amendment is thoroughly bipartisan and enjoys cosponsors such as
Senator Ayotte, Senator Alexander, and Senator Tillis, just to name a
few. In fact, I am told there are 246 amendments that have been filed
on this bill, and not one amendment has the number of cosponsors that
this amendment does. This amendment has more cosponsors than any of the
remaining 245 amendments.

Before I close and urge my colleagues to vote yes, I want to
paraphrase something I said on the floor last week about another
amendment. Conservation policies such as LWCF are important to the
American people. Protecting our land and water is mom-and-apple-pie
stuff in Colorado, and I know our State is not the only one. Conserved
lands and wide-open spaces are a huge economic driver across our
country, and it is part of who we are in the West.

We are not only talking about backcountry parcels, such as the one I
visited in Ophir, we are talking about building new parks in inner
cities and providing new access to hunters and anglers. The LWCF does
all of these things and more.

I say to my colleagues, if you are for city kids getting a new
playground or making sure we protect gold medal trout streams or any
number of benefits in between, then you need to be for amendment No. 92
from Senator Burr. I urge all of my colleagues to support the measure
when it comes time for a vote later this evening. I think we would make
a very meaningful statement about where the Senate is headed if we
could supply the votes necessary to actually adopt this amendment.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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