Public Lands, Forests, and Mining Subcommittee Hearing to Receive Testimony on Pending Legislation

June 12, 2024
02:30 PM
366 Dirksen Senate Office Building

The hearing will be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

  • S. 2156, to amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to authorize additional entities to be eligible to complete the maintenance work on Bolts Ditch and the Bolts Ditch Headgate within the Holy Cross Wilderness, Colorado;
  • S. 3123, to provide for the standardization, consolidation, and publication of data relating to public outdoor recreational use of federal waterways among federal land and water management agencies, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3148, to prohibit the use of funds by the Secretary of the Interior to finalize and implement certain travel management plans in the State of Utah;
  • S. 3322, to allow holders of certain grazing permits to make minor range improvements and to require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior respond to requests for range improvements within 30 days, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3346, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain streams in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and Smith River system in the State of Montana as components of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3593, to provide for economic development and conservation in Washoe County, Nevada, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3596, to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to amend references of gilsonite to asphaltite;
  • S. 3617, to provide equitable treatment for the people of the Village Corporation established for the Native Village of Saxman, Alaska, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3790, to make additional Federal public land available for selection under the Alaska Native Vietnam era veterans land allotment program, and for other purposes;
  • S. 3870, to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to expand eligibility for certain financial assistance for the acquisition of slip-on tanker units for wildland firefighting;
  • S. 3985, to amend the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 to add certain land to the Sarvis Creek Wilderness, and for other purposes;
  • S. 4310, to exchange non-Federal land held by the Chugach Alaska Corporation for certain Federal Land in the Chugach Region, and for other purposes;
  • S. 4424, a bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the longstanding use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes; 
  • S. 4431, to reinstate the Bull Mountains Mining Plan Modification, and for other purposes;
  • S. 4432, to allow certain Federal minerals to be mined consistent with the Bull Mountains Mining Plan Modification;
  • S. 4449, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain river segments in the State of Oregon as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and for other purposes;
  • S. 4451, to require the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to carry out a study on reservation systems for Federal land;
  • S. 4454, to provide for the establishment of an Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Program on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and for other purposes;
  • S. 4456, to amend the Granger-Thye Act to modify the maximum term for certain special use permits for housing;
  • S. 4457, to provide for conservation and economic development in the State of Nevada, and for other purposes.

The hearing will be webcast live on the committee’s website, and an archived video will be available shortly after the hearing concludes. 

Archived Webcast

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Opening Remarks

  • Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto

    Chair
    Subcommitte on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining
  • Sen. Mike Lee

    Ranking Member
    Subcommitte on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining

Witness Panel 1

  • Ms. Karen Kelleher

    Deputy Director, State Operations
    Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior
  • Mr. Troy Heithecker

    Associate Deputy Chief, National Forest System
    U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • Ms. Tess Davis, J.D.

    Assistant Attorney General
    State of Utah