WASHINGTON –
Today, Ranking Republican Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced the
Shawnee Wilderness Area Designation Act of 2019, legislation to
lock up 289,000 acres of land in Illinois and make it part of the
National Wilderness Preservation System. Earlier this week, they
condemned legislation introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) that
undermines a bipartisan compromise signed into law earlier this year as
part of S.47, the
Natural Resources Management Act. S. 47 designated nearly one
million acres in Emery County, UT, for multiple use including
recreation, conservation, development, and grazing, resolving a
decades-long controversy over federal land designations and management
in the region.
“One
good deed deserves another. One bad bill demands another. This week,
Senator Durbin (D-IL) introduced a bill to lock-up more than 8.2 million
acres of land in
Utah. Today, Utah members introduced a bill to designate 289,000 acres
of wilderness in Illinois. The acreage should be larger, but only 1.1%
of Illinois is federally owned compared to more than 65% in Utah. The
new designation may not make sense for Illinois,
but neither does Durbin’s arbitrary bill. I look forward to both of
them going nowhere.” –
Ranking Republican Rob Bishop
“Senators
in the East shouldn’t be telling people in the West what to do with our
land. If wilderness is so important to Senator Durbin, he doesn’t need
to go all the
way to Utah to designate it. Our bill would designate the 289,000 acres
of national forest in Illinois as wilderness so he can save himself a
trip across the country and enjoy the wilderness in his own backyard.”
– U.S. Senator Mitt Romney
Press Release
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