Mike Kennedy Asks Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: Can Federal Lands Be Used To Build Housing?

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing last month, Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-UT) questioned Interior Sec. Doug Burgum about selling federal land in order to make more housing available.

Transcript

00:00These times expired, the chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Kennedy, for five minutes.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Burgum, for being with us. I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to share dinner with you,

00:10and I, after that dinner, listened to you for about an hour, and I was extremely impressed with your intelligence

00:16and capacity to handle the issues of the day. So thank you very much for being here, almost up to four hours,

00:23and I'm really sorry to take a few more minutes of your day and your life to answer some questions,

00:27but these are important questions. In fact, I'll just add to that and just say I have five interns

00:31with me right now, and I said Doug Burgum's downstairs right now. You need to come and see

00:35Doug Burgum perform because the man is intelligent and capable, and I'm really grateful that you're

00:40serving in the capacity that you are. You have other things that you could be doing, but thank you for

00:44your patriotic service to our country. As you know, 70 percent of Utah's lands are actually controlled

00:50by the federal government. That involves a requirement on a regular basis for us to interact

00:56with BLM, Interior, and other agencies that make it really hard for us. As I know, as a governor,

01:01you had to deal with this too, for us to develop and have local control over these vital lands,

01:06and so understanding that you're sympathetic to that, I'm really grateful that you and the

01:10administration are working to enhance our permitting process, that we're trying to move those things

01:15along so we can unleash our American energy dominance, which I'm really grateful for. I want to talk for a

01:21few moments about the Antiquities Act, which for ages has been abused by various administrations,

01:29and I have a quote from the original Antiquities Act that said, quote, the smallest area compatible

01:36with the protection of the objects, unquote, is how it's supposed to be used. Instead, we have vast

01:41tracts of land, Bears Ears, for example, is 1.4 million acres. Hovenweep, which is nearby,

01:47is only 800 acres to protect vital antiquities associated with that. So I would like to know,

01:53when it comes to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante monuments, what is the, an update that

01:59you can provide as to what the Trump administration is going to do regarding these monuments? Can you

02:04give me any kind of update or statement regarding that? Well, I think you know that the Bears Ears and

02:10Escalante have been at the center of this debate about the, uh, ability for the presidential pen to

02:17both, you know, create and then can future presidents, uh, shrink or modify or not. Uh, and you know,

02:25that legal, legal, legal battle is going on right now, but I, uh, I believe in following the law and

02:31your, uh, particular quote that you cited from the 1906 Antiquities Act is the one that I view as the,

02:38the basis for this law, which is smallest possible acreage to protect, uh, the objects. Uh, there's

02:44other methodologies that we have, whether it's, uh, uh, you know, going through the, a longer process

02:50than just an ex, in an executive order in the final days of an administration to say this area

02:55is going to become protected. It's going to become wilderness area. It's going to become part of federal

02:59lands. But the idea that we can just transform, uh, and change the land use on millions of acres,

03:06uh, and if you look at when these monuments were created, if people don't think it's political,

03:10then look at the mass majority of them were created within the last, uh, weeks of, uh,

03:15of, uh, administrations, you know, starting in the late 1990s. And then that's when this

03:20whole trend began of this, uh, sort of broad interpretation of it. And then it's for a state

03:26like yours, uh, you know, creating a 1.4 million acre monument, you know, hey, well,

03:32do that in a state that's got one percent federal land. You do that in a state that's already got,

03:36you know, 69 percent federal land, you get a different reaction from the public

03:40and from the citizens and from the state government. So I think, again, it's,

03:43all of these decisions are also contextual, uh, with where they're, where, with where they're at. So,

03:48uh, I, I, we're, we're going to be taking a close look and, uh, working with the administration.

03:53Happy to work with you and others in these, uh, particularly in the large public land states, uh,

03:58who are really impinged by these, uh, decisions. Thank you for doing that. The reality is you

04:04say land use. And I know that that many talk about land use, but many times these monument

04:09designations are land non-use at all. It's a museum piece. It's to forever be looked at,

04:15but never touched, never felt, never utilized on any level. And I, I'll just say, uh, the earth is,

04:21and you know, I'm a family doctor and doctoring means a lot to me is our bodies and the earth are

04:26very similar. Our bodies are meant to be used. They're not museum pieces. We should use our

04:29bodies responsibly. We should not abuse them. And our land is the same way is that land does

04:34better when it's used and managed, but when it's abused and mismanaged or neglected in both cases,

04:40both entities suffer. Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the country. Another thing that

04:45I'm really eager to talk to you about for moments that I have is housing and the fact that we have

04:51federal land and we can't build anything on it, including necessary infrastructure or housing.

04:56Senator Mike Lee from the state of Utah has proposed the houses act, which contiguous land to

05:01localities that want to purchase at fair market value, uh, federal land so that they can use it for

05:07housing is I think a necessary policy policy that we could promulgate. What are your thoughts about

05:13federal land and the possibilities that we could use that to address our housing crisis in the West,

05:18which is a massive issue in many states? I think in highland states, uh, or in the high public land

05:23states, uh, particularly Nevada, Utah, uh, Idaho, Alaska, these are places where we have to look really

05:29hard at, at, uh, finding a solution. And we talked earlier today that where there was, uh, bipartisan

05:35legislation like the Southern Nevada Lands Act, you know, Harry Reid drove that thing, uh, it's been working,

05:39uh, there's, there's models out there on how to get this thing done. Thank you very much for your

05:44time. You've been great. And Mr. Chair, thank you for the time. I yield back.

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